Pastor blames Obama rift on 'them Jews'

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By Greg Pierce

President Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., blames "them Jews" for preventing any contact between the two men.

Mr. Wright, who is in Hampton, Va., this week for a ministers conference, told reporter David Squires of the Newport News Daily Press that he holds no grudge against Mr. Obama for cutting ties with him.

"Of course I voted for him; he's my son. I'm proud of him," Mr. Wright said. "I've got five biological kids. They all make mistakes and bad choices. I haven't stopped loving any of them.

"He made mistakes. He made bad choices. I've got kids who listen to their friends. He listened to those around him. I did not disown him."

Asked if he had spoken to the president, Mr. Wright said: "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office. …

"They will not let him to talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. … I said from the beginning: He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do."

Mr. Wright also said Mr. Obama should have sent a U.S. delegation to the World Conference on Racism held recently in Geneva, but that the president did not do so for fear of offending Jews and Israel.

"Ethic cleansing is going on in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing of the Zionist is a sin and a crime against humanity, and they don't want Barack talking like that because that's anti-Israel," Mr. Wright said.