donnay
04-25-2014, 09:52 PM
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy apologizes for race remarks
By John M. Glionna
April 25, 2014, 4:15 p.m.
Reporting from Las Vegas —
Militant Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on Friday apologized for his comments published this week on African Americans and slavery but refused to back off from his intended point that the federal government was too powerful, saying that his remarks came “from the heart.”
In a daily news conference from his ranch in Bunkerville, north of Las Vegas, the 67-year-old rancher, who is in a prolonged battle with federal officials over grazing rights on public lands in Nevada, said he was not a racist.
“I’m probably one of the most non-racist people in America,” he said, standing on the back of a long-haul truck trailer with an American flag in the foreground.
He suggested that his comments were misinterpreted.
“I hope I didn’t offend anybody. If I did, I ask for your forgiveness,” he said in a news conference streamed on the Internet. “But I meant what I said. It comes form the heart."
In an interview with a New York Times reporter, Bundy talked about social welfare and African Americans and the corrosive effect of government subsidies.
"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom,” Bundy said.
A public firestorm erupted. Some conservative lawmakers who had supported Bundy backed off, denouncing his statements. Harry Reid, Nevada’s senior senator and a Bundy critic, called him a “hateful racist.”
Continued... (http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nevada-bundy-slavery-apology-20140425,0,2611088.story#ixzz2zxdmuKO4)
By John M. Glionna
April 25, 2014, 4:15 p.m.
Reporting from Las Vegas —
Militant Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy on Friday apologized for his comments published this week on African Americans and slavery but refused to back off from his intended point that the federal government was too powerful, saying that his remarks came “from the heart.”
In a daily news conference from his ranch in Bunkerville, north of Las Vegas, the 67-year-old rancher, who is in a prolonged battle with federal officials over grazing rights on public lands in Nevada, said he was not a racist.
“I’m probably one of the most non-racist people in America,” he said, standing on the back of a long-haul truck trailer with an American flag in the foreground.
He suggested that his comments were misinterpreted.
“I hope I didn’t offend anybody. If I did, I ask for your forgiveness,” he said in a news conference streamed on the Internet. “But I meant what I said. It comes form the heart."
In an interview with a New York Times reporter, Bundy talked about social welfare and African Americans and the corrosive effect of government subsidies.
"They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom,” Bundy said.
A public firestorm erupted. Some conservative lawmakers who had supported Bundy backed off, denouncing his statements. Harry Reid, Nevada’s senior senator and a Bundy critic, called him a “hateful racist.”
Continued... (http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-nevada-bundy-slavery-apology-20140425,0,2611088.story#ixzz2zxdmuKO4)