Mary Landrieu: South Not Always ‘The Friendliest Place’ For Blacks (VIDEO)

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, talks to reporters after signing her qualifying paperwork to run for re-election on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014, in Baton Rouge, La. Landrieu is seeking a fourth term. (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte)
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Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) told NBC News that one of the reasons President Barack Obama is politically unpopular in her state is his race.

“I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader,” she said.

Landrieu, who faces a very tough reelection battle on Tuesday, also cited Obama’s energy policy as “one of the main reasons” he struggles in Louisiana.

Landrieu’s candid comment was slammed as “remarkably divisive” by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who called it a “major insult” and said the Democrat “appears to be living in a different century,” per NBC News.

Landrieu is likely headed to a runoff with Republican Bill Cassidy on December 6, with neither candidate close to the 50 percent threshold required by the state to win on Election Day. In a head-to-head matchup, she trails Cassidy by 6.7 percentage points in the TPM PollTracker average.

A spokesman for Cassidy’s campaign didn’t immediately return a request to respond to Landrieu’s comments.

Watch the video below, via NBC News.

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Notable Replies

  1. Oh Horrors . Just in time for Halloween : Politician speaks the truth

  2. I don’t know what century Bobby Jindal is living in, but she was being completely honest and more importantly she’s right. We hear on this site everyday from people who live in red states in the south what they deal with and hear about the President on a daily basis. I’ll trust their perception over his any day of the week.

  3. Wow it’s refreshing to hear someone tell it the way it is. Of course Jindal doesn’t have the ability to do that and criticizes her for it.

  4. Avatar for tao tao says:

    And the truth shall burn like hell. See: Harry Truman.

  5. She’s right.
    GOP can feign outrage all they want but they know she’s right as well.

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