by Mark Silva
The BlackBerry that Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was carrying at dinner at a little Italian restaurant on the upper East Side of Manhattan the other night was about to "explode'' when the president started talking about him at a news conference.
That's how Gates, the noted scholar of African American culture who was arrested in his own home in Cambridge, Mass., last week, recalls learning that President Barack Obama, his friend, had suggested that the Cambridge police had "acted stupidly''in cuffing the professor during a call about a suspected burglarly at his near-Harvard Yard abode.
That's OK, we suppose, because Rush Limbaugh's head was about to explode when the president got into the Gates case with some "passion'' for it.
Gates, speaking on The Gayle King Show on Sirius-XM's "Oprah Radio'' today, was asked if he had been watching Obama's prime-time news conference Wednesday night, which was largely dedicated to healthcare reform but at which the president was asked about the Cambridge episode involving Gates.
"I was having dinner with a friend on the upper East Side in a little private Italian restaurant, and all of a sudden I thought my BlackBerry was going to explode,'' Gates said. A friend called saying "Barack Obama just mentioned you in his news conference.''
"I said, 'Oh my goodness, what did he say?'... 'He said the Cambridge police were stupid and that you were friends'...'I went, My God.' And then the emails...it was like a slot machine. I got 500 emails last night. ''
King, suggesting that the president was correct in saying that police had "acted stupidly,'' also said she was "surprised that the president of the United States would use that particular phrase.'' (Hear their radio conversation here.)
"I think that the circumstances are so egregious...that...it was the adjective that...logically popped into his head,'' said Gates, who has demanded an apology from the arresting officer, Sgt. Crowley, who in turn said in media interviews today that he will offer no such thing. The police commissioner came to his defense, too.
"I haven't listened to a lot of the commentary, but the people who want to protect the police and who are afraid of criminals like I'm afraid of criminals are looking for something that I could have done to justify Sgt. Crowley's actions,'' Gates said in the radio interview. "There's nothing that I could have done to justify Sgtt. Crowley's action. ''
It was more the president's action, or rather words, that was creating a stir today, in the aftermath of a news conference that was supposed to help him tout healthcare.
Limbaugh, interviewed by Greta Van Susteren for talks airing tonight and tomorrow night on FOX News Channel's On the Record, suggested that Obama "was more passionate on that last question'' about Gates at the news conference than he was about healthcare.
"And calling the cops stupid?'' Limbaugh added. "I'm telling you, this is -- there's an undercurrent here... And we're finding out this guy's got a chip on his shoulder. He's angry at this country. He's not proud of it.
"That whole press conference was about health care last night,'' Limbaugh said. "But the last question, that's when he came alive."
No comments:
Post a Comment