The Republican Jewish Coalition has released an automated call highlighting a statement by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) which was critical of Barack Obama.
Nadler said Sunday that Obama "didn’t have the political courage to want to make the statement of walking out" of Trinity United Church of Christ when he realized that Rev. Jeremiah Wright was "a nut" and "lunatic," because "you don’t walk out of a church with 8,000 members in your district."
The RJC quickly turned the remarks into a minute-long automated phone call to 300,000 Jewish households in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida on Monday. Calling Wright’s church "anti-Semitic" and "anti-American," the call plays a portion of Nadler’s comments and then asks, "If Obama doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing here at home, can he stand up to dictators and tyrants who seek to do us harm?"
Nadler made the remarks after an appearance at a Boca Raton synagogue on behalf of Obama, in response to a group of congregants who were peppering him with questions about Obama’s relationship with Wright.
The conversation was captured on video by Pamela Geller, who blogs as "Atlas Shrugs," and posted on Youtube Sunday. On the video, Nadler does preface his remarks about "political courage" by saying he has "no personal knowledge" of the matter and his statement is merely "my guess."
Nadler said in a statement Monday afternoon that "I made a thoughtless comment yesterday which does not reflect the way I feel about Barack Obama."
"I strongly support Barack Obama for president, because he has the values and political leadership to bring the change our country needs," Nadler said.
