White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that President Obama had no regrets about using the word “nigger” during a podcast interview and that his reason for using it “could not be more apparent.”
During an interview on comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast that went online earlier Monday, the President said America’s race problem was “not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public.”
“That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination,” the President said.
Earnest answered several questions about the President’s use of the word during the daily press briefing.
“The reason he used the word could not be more apparent from the context of his discussion on the podcast,” Earnest said.
“The President made clear it is not possible to judge the nation’s progress on race issues based solely on an evaluation of our country’s manners,” he added.
Journalist Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked if the President went into the interview “intending to use the word” to be “provocative.”
“No,” Earnest replied. “As is as evident from the conversation, it was a free-flowing conversation. It was wide-ranging.”
Karl asked if Obama had ever said the word in public before.
“I don’t think so,” Earnest said. “I know that the word is mentioned in ‘Dreams From My Father,’ his book, several times, but I don’t know that I’ve heard him use the word before.”
Karl later came back to the topic, asking if the President was bothered that he was being bleeped out for using the word.
Earnest said he had not spoken to the President about the issue.
