Ever since the Civil Rights movement, Reverend Jesse Jackson has distinguished himself on the front lines, battling for equality among Americans, even running for president twice. So it was no surprise that he supported Barack Obama’s presidential bid in 2008. When Obama won, Jackson was seen at the victory celebration in tears, as if he helped realize a dream put forth by his late colleague, Martin Luther King Jr. But it turns out Jackson didn’t always have that much admiration for the two-term president.
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His contemptuous feelings for Obama were made earlier that year at a Fox affiliate in Chicago, just before Jackson, sitting with healthcare executive Reed Tuckson, was about to have an interview for a segment on “Fox and Friends.” That’s when Jackson whispered, “See, Barack’s been talking down to Black people on his faith based. I wanna cut his n*ts off.” Since the interview hadn’t yet started, Jackson was unaware that cameras were already recording. According to Politico, Fox News wanted to use that part of the tape for other shows hosted by Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, neither of them exactly friends of Obama. When the segment aired, Jackson realized the potential damage it could do to the Obama campaign, and knew he had to patch things up. Three days later, he issued a statement that read, “For any harm or hurt that this hot mic conversation may have caused, I apologize,” (per the New York Post).
