People ‘confuse passion for rage’
By Ken Shepherd
Rosie O’Donnell appeared on the May 5 “Today” show in its fourth hour, claiming that many have confused her “passion for rage” much in the same way as they’ve misunderstood Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Indeed, claimed the former “The View” co-host, Obama’s former pastor “made sense to me.”
O’Donnell also defended Wright’s conspiracy theory view on AIDS, chalking that up to Wright’s “genetic memory” of the Tuskegee Institute. O’Donnell incorrectly asserted the U.S. government infected the patients in that syphilis study.
Below is the transcript, taken down by NewsBusters resident O’Donnellogist Justin McCarthy:HODA KOTB, co-host: You know Rosie there has been a void on morning TV since we don’t hear your opinions. Every times there’s like, I was going through a story today “I wonder what Rosie thinks about that.” What about- can I ask you about just the little Jeremiah Wright thing?
ROSIE O’DONNELL: Yeah.
KOTB: This is a big deal. What have you been thinking when you’ve been watching this stuff in the headlines?
O’DONNELL: Well, did you see Bill Moyers recently give his speech about what happened after Reverend Wright was on his show?
KOTB: Tell, tell me.
O’DONNELL: He got thousands of e-mails, over like 5,000 e-mails and some of them irate, some of them understanding. But what it came to, boil down to in his mind is the fact that, you know, this man is, is following a tradition of black preachers and that there is a righteous indignation about people who were only considering three-fourths a person until fairly recently in our history. And that his anger, which annoys some and forces some to look at issues that America is not really ready to face, is the actual issue. That racism does exist in this country and it’s still thriving. And some of the things that Jeremiah Wright says he’s held accountable for and Oprah- not Oprah- Obama is held accountable for. But there are things that white preachers said that are just as insane.
KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, co-host: All of them should be held accountable.
O’DONNELL: Pat Robertson saying that, you know, gays and feminists were responsible for the 9-11 catastrophe.
GIFFORD: So you agree that they should all be held accountable, but do you think that we should make-
O’DONNELL: No.