RENO, Nev. — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton faulted chief rival Barack Obama’s campaign Saturday for twisting her comments about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Clinton was questioned by reporters about South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s reaction to her comments last week that seemed to suggest that President Lyndon Johnson should get more credit than King for passage of major civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
Clyburn expressed disappointment in an interview with The New York Times over what Clinton had said as well as former President Clinton’s remark in New Hampshire about Obama telling a “fairy tale” in his opposition to the Iraq war.
“I regret the way that this matter has been used,” Hillary Clinton told reporters. “The comments about it are baseless and divisive. I was personally offended at the approach taken that was not only misleading but unnecessarily hurtful.”
She suggested reporters consider the sources of the criticism, much of which has come from the black community.
“I think it clearly came from Sen. Obama’s campaign, and I don’t think it’s the kind of debate we should be having in our campaign,” she said.
The Obama campaign did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment Saturday evening.
Clyburn, one of the leading Democrats in South Carolina and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has said he will remain neutral in the Democratic presidential primary. South Carolina Democrats vote Jan. 26.
But the reaction to Clinton’s remarks — and comments by surrogates for her candidacy — have riled many in the black community.
On Friday, former President Clinton called the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio program to say his comment about Obama telling a “fairy tale” about opposing the war has been misconstrued as a criticism of the senator’s White House bid.
“There’s nothing ‘fairy tale’ about his campaign. It’s real, it’s strong, and he might win,” Clinton said in a phone interview for Sharpton’s Radio One network talk show.
Clinton said his “fairy tale” remark on the eve of the New Hampshire primary — won by his wife — was only intended to describe Obama’s claim to have exercised better judgment about the war, not as a sign of “personal disrespect.”
Race looms large in the South Carolina primary, where half the Democratic electorate is black. Obama, the winner in Iowa, and Hillary Clinton, the victor in New Hampshire, are counting on a win in the state ahead of the large group of primaries Feb. 5.
Separately, the Clinton campaign named finance co-chairs Maureen White and Hassan Nemazee to help with fundraising.
