Gates, Crowley Due Soon at White House for Beer (Update1)
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By Carol Wolf
July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police Sergeant James Crowley will probably join President Barack Obama for a beer within the next several days, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
The pair was invited by Obama to the White House after the president made remarks about Crowleyâs arrest of Gates on a disorderly conduct charge last week, Gibbs said on âFox News Sunday.â.
âThe president believes this can be a teachable moment,â Gibbs said. âHe feels he unnecessarily contributed to the frenzy. Cooler heads have prevailed.â
Reaction to the remarks threatened to overtake the presidentâs main message last week of overhauling the U.S. health-care system, David Axelrod, Obamaâs senior adviser, said today on CBSâs âFace the Nation.â
âI think he understood that the debate was veering off in the wrong direction,â Axelrod said. âHe felt a responsibility to step forward and kind of cool the situation down and acknowledge that fact that he had, as he said, calibrated his words poorly.â
The incident occurred as Gates returned home after a trip to China. Police were called to Gatesâs house after a passerby mistook his effort to open his jammed front door for a break-in.
Gates and the officers who responded to the call had a verbal confrontation, leading to his arrest. The Cambridge police department, in a statement released after the charges had been dropped, called the arrest âregrettable and unfortunate.â The president, at a July 22 White House news conference, said the police âacted stupidlyâ in arresting Gates.
Obama later said he should have âcalibratedâ his remarks differently.
Gates is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is one of 20 people at the school who hold university professor chairs, a title created in 1935 to honor âindividuals of distinction.â
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Carol Wolf
July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police Sergeant James Crowley will probably join President Barack Obama for a beer within the next several days, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
The pair was invited by Obama to the White House after the president made remarks about Crowleyâs arrest of Gates on a disorderly conduct charge last week, Gibbs said on âFox News Sunday.â.
âThe president believes this can be a teachable moment,â Gibbs said. âHe feels he unnecessarily contributed to the frenzy. Cooler heads have prevailed.â
Reaction to the remarks threatened to overtake the presidentâs main message last week of overhauling the U.S. health-care system, David Axelrod, Obamaâs senior adviser, said today on CBSâs âFace the Nation.â
âI think he understood that the debate was veering off in the wrong direction,â Axelrod said. âHe felt a responsibility to step forward and kind of cool the situation down and acknowledge that fact that he had, as he said, calibrated his words poorly.â
The incident occurred as Gates returned home after a trip to China. Police were called to Gatesâs house after a passerby mistook his effort to open his jammed front door for a break-in.
Gates and the officers who responded to the call had a verbal confrontation, leading to his arrest. The Cambridge police department, in a statement released after the charges had been dropped, called the arrest âregrettable and unfortunate.â The president, at a July 22 White House news conference, said the police âacted stupidlyâ in arresting Gates.
Obama later said he should have âcalibratedâ his remarks differently.
Gates is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is one of 20 people at the school who hold university professor chairs, a title created in 1935 to honor âindividuals of distinction.â
