Obama and 'Them Jews': Not the Wright Stuff

President Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (AP)

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," June 11, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, this is the last thing President Obama needs. Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the president's bombastic former pastor, is letting loose again in an unfiltered and explosive interview with The Daily Press of Newport News, a newspaper in Virginia.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DAVID SQUIRES, THE DAILY PRESS: Did you vote for Barack Obama?

REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, OBAMA'S FORMER PASTOR: Of course I voted for him. He's my son. I'm proud of him. I've got five biological kids and they all make mistakes and bad choices. I don't stop loving none of them. He made a bad mistake. He made bad choices. I've got kids who listen to their friends. He's listening to those around him. He made a mistake. I did not disown him.

SQUIRES: Right. Have you spoken with him since he's been in the White House?

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years from now, when he's a lame duck, or eight years, when he's out of office.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: David Squires is a columnist for The Daily Press of Newport News and did that interview. David, you know, it's -- it's hard to understand how this man -- or why he says (INAUDIBLE) What's your thought about your interview with him?

SQUIRES: You say what is my thought?

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes. I mean, like, the things he says is just -- they're just so over the top. And I mean, and he's critical of the president. What do you think about him?

SQUIRES: Well, Jeremiah Wright is a very outspoken person. He's not a shy individual. He's a very smart man. He actually is a very kind and gentle man, very friendly person, and a very proud man. And he was speaking his mind. And the first question I asked him was did he have any regrets. And before I could finish the question -- Absolutely none. And he went on and on. So obviously, he has been affected by this experience.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, it's hard for me to have that sort of sense of he's a kind and gentle man, as you say, when one of the statements he says to you, Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I mean, it doesn't - - it doesn't sound like -- I mean, it sounds like anti-Semitism. If we put any other word in it, I mean, whether it's women or any other sort of, you know, reference, it does not sound like a man who has this sort of open heart. It sounds like a man who has hate in his heart, if he thinks, like, "the Jews" are standing in his way.

SQUIRES: Well, you know, when he came to the arena, the convocation center at Hampton University, he was very kind to people who approached him. And as he left, he was very kind and gentle to people who approached him. He talked to them. And I had a local minister, Reverend Alexander Jamieson (ph), make an introduction for me to get to interview him, and I was shocked that I was even allowed to interview him, that he actually agreed to do the interview. And as a reporter, I don't take sides. I don't try to analyze what people are saying. I have my record doing. I'm taking notes...

VAN SUSTEREN: So you don't support him. You don't...

(CROSSTALK)

VAN SUSTEREN: So I take it that you -- you know, that you're not impressed with him when he makes those anti-Semitic remarks. I take it you're not impressed with him.

SQUIRES: I'm not impressed with anybody making anti-Semitic remarks. But I was impressed when I went to his church. I moved to Newport News from Chicago about five years ago, and I went to hear the Reverend Jeremiah Wright preach. He is a heck of a minister. That man can preach -- flat-out.

VAN SUSTEREN: I guess, you know, for me, it's, like, when I heard those tapes, he's saying that "G D America" -- I mean, I saw him. And I did Civil Rights work for years as a lawyer. I made, like, you know, $10,000 or $12,000 a year, and I -- you know, and I wanted to do it every single minute. It's very hard for me to think that this is such a great man when I hear this hate spewed at them. And how he's even trying to, you know, poke a stick in the president's eyes as the president's trying to resolve things in the Middle East.

SQUIRES: Well, I'm a big fan of our president and what he's trying to do, unlike our friend, Rush Limbaugh.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you a big fan of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I guess I should ask?

SQUIRES: I wouldn't say a big fan, but he can preach and I like his sermons.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I guess...

SQUIRES: And I've only heard one. I've only heard one, and you know, I wouldn't mind hearing more.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, he's got -- they're all on DVD. You can buy them. And boy, I tell you, you can hear an earful. He and, of course, Reverend Pfleger, the two -- the two are very busy out in Chicago trying to say everything incendiary, not trying to make things better but trying to stir people up and trying to generate, at least in my opinion, a lot of hate that we don't need. But David, thank you. You got the interview we all want. So thank you very much. I tip my hat. You got the interview. Thank you, David.

SQUIRES: Thank you for having me.

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