Jackson: I "felt regret" for Obama remark

NEW YORK — The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for making crude remarks about presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that were picked up during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

The civil-rights leader apparently did not know his microphone was on when he whispered the comments to another guest as he prepared for an interview on "Fox & Friends." The guest asked about speeches on morality Obama has recently given at black churches.

"Barack, he's talking down to black people," Jackson said in a short clip the network aired Wednesday on "Special Report With Brit Hume."

Hume reported that Jackson also "threatened to cut off a certain part of Obama's anatomy."

Jackson gave an interview to rival news network CNN expressing regret for his comments, which he said were made as part of a discussion about Obama's calls for more personal responsibility during recent appearances in black churches.

"I said it can come off as speaking down to black people," Jackson said on CNN's "The Situation Room."

"And then I said something I felt regret for; it was crude," he added. "It was very private, and very much a sound bite — and a live mic. And so I feel; I find no comfort in it, I find no joy in it. So I immediately called the senator's campaign to send my statement of apology to repair the harm or hurt that this may have caused his campaign because I support it unequivocally."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the Democratic presidential contender accepted Jackson's apology.

CNN did not report the exact words Jackson used during the Fox interview. Anchor Wolf Blitzer said the language was "so crude" the network could not air it.

The comment triggered condemnation from an unexpected source: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., Jackson's son.

The younger Jackson said he was "deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson's reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama."

He added: "Reverend Jackson is my Dad, and I'll always love him. I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric.

"He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."Obama, who in August stands to be the first African American to be nominated for president by a major political party, spent Father's Day last month at one of Chicago's largest black churches telling fathers they should set better examples for their children and shouldn't abandon them.

"Too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes," Obama said at the Apostolic Church of God, which has more than 20,000 members.

Material from The Associated Press and Bloomberg News is included in this report.