Obama apologizes to ousted Agriculture official, says he hopes she will take new position
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BEN EVANS , Associated Press
Last update: July 22, 2010 - 4:25 PM
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama apologized Thursday to former federal official Shirley Sherrod over her ouster in the midst of a racially tinged firestorm that enveloped the White House.
Obama expressed his regret in a phone call, telling Sherrod he hopes she will accept the Agriculture Department's offer of a new position and saying she could parlay "this misfortune" into an opportunity to use her life experiences to help people, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The president thought Sherrod was "very gracious," Gibbs told reporters.
Sherrod was forced to resign as a USDA official in Georgia earlier this week after a conservative blogger posted an edited video of her recalling at an NAACP meeting her reluctance 24 years ago to help a poor white farmer seeking government assistance. She later said that the video posting took out of context what had been a talk advocating racial reconciliation.
Obama spoke to Sherrod after a slew of nationally broadcast interviews. From network to network, she said she wanted to talk to Obama about her wretched week but that she felt there was no need for him to apologize, as Gibbs and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had earlier.
Sherrod, in an interview with CNN, called her talk with Obama "a very good conversation."
"I've been dealing with some of the same issues he's been dealing with, especially for the last five years," she said.
Earlier, Sherrod said in a television interview that she viewed the president as "not someone who has experienced some of the things I've experienced in life."
Sherrod said she is uncertain whether she will accept Vilsack's invitation to come back to his department, saying she wants to think it over.
The fracas started when Sherrod was forced to resign as Georgia's director of rural development Monday after a conservative blogger posted a video of her telling a crowd at a local NAACP meeting about her initial reluctance 24 years ago to help a poor white farmer seeking government assistance.
Sherrod took to the media Tuesday denying that her comments were racist, and the NAACP â which had at first condemned her remarks, then later apologized â posted the full 43-minute video showing the entire speech. The farmer in question also did interviews and said Sherrod had eventually helped him save his farm.
Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart said he had posted a portion of Sherrod's remarks in an effort to illustrate that racism exists in the NAACP, an argument he was using to counter allegations by the civil rights organization of racism in the tea party movement.
"He was willing to destroy me ... in order to try to destroy the NAACP," Sherrod said Thursday. She said she might consider suing Breitbart for defamation.
Breitbart, who has not responded to requests for comment from The Associated Press, offered a narrow correction on his website, BigGovernment.com. He acknowledged that Sherrod's remarks about hesitating to help the white farmer referenced something that took place before she worked for the government. The site had previously said her comments were about her work as a USDA employee.
However, the site has not backed off its claim that Sherrod's remarks were racist and still labels the Sherrod posting with the heading, "Video Proof â The NAACP Rewards Racism."
Sherrod has said she resigned under White House pressure, but Vilsack has said repeatedly the decision was his. In offering his remorse Wednesday, he told reporters: "This is a good woman. She's been through hell. ... I could have done and should have done a better job."
As Obama stayed out of the public fray before the phone call, questions remained about White House involvement in the decision to ask Sherrod to resign. Had there been White House pressure?
"No," insisted Vilsack. He said he made the decision without knowing all the facts and regretted it. "I am accepting the responsibility with deep regret," he told a news conference.
Gibbs, too, has insisted the decision was made at the Agriculture Department. He told reporters that Obama spoke with Vilsack on Wednesday night, but he wouldn't discuss the substance of the conversation. Gibbs said he doesn't see any reason for Vilsack to resign.
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