Sen. John Kerry blasted the presidential campaign of fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton on Monday, saying remarks by a Clinton surrogate hinting at Barack Obama’s past drug use were “negative in the worst, petty way.”
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Kerry said: “That kind of discussion, from a campaign where the former president made famous the words ‘I did not inhale,’ is to make something an issue that they themselves acknowledged shouldn’t be.”
Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Network, raised the specter of Barack Obama’s admitted drug use as a teenager while campaigning with Hillary in South Carolina on Sunday. Clinton did not repudiate the remark when she spoke on the same platform with Johnson or afterwards as she campaigned throughout the day.
“I thought that was uncalled for,” Kerry — who has endorsed Obama — said about the remark.
“I thought it was negative in the worst, petty way. I thought it was unfortunate. And if it is done in surrogacy for the campaign itself then it is really wrong…
“I think [Obama’s] proven record as a public person stands as a significant knock down to whatever youthful transgressions somebody might have had. And who in the world hasn’t had some transgression of some kind?”
The 2004 Democratic presidential candidate also took issue with Clinton’s assertion that Obama has been more rhetoric than substance regarding Iraq — opposing the war before entering the Senate, then voting for funding resolutions while in office.
“If your criticisms and/or your attacks are not founded on accuracy, that’s an unfortunate tactic under any circumstance,” he told The Huffington Post.
“The fact is that Barack Obama — and I know this because I’m the one who invited him to speak at our convention in 2004 and I campaigned with him out in Illinois — was against the war.”
Kerry added: “I think barrack Obama has the best opportunity to be able to unite the country and create what I would call a transformational presidency.”
As Newsmax has reported, Kerry is a member of the so-called “Gang of Four” Hillary haters.
The Four — Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, and Al Gore — have pledged to stop Hillary from getting the nomination, and each has his own reason for detesting Clinton.
In Kerry’s case, he feels Hillary stabbed him in the back, promising to go all out to support his 2004 White House campaign but then doing as little as possible to help him.
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