The head of American International Group apologized Tuesday for his “poor choice of words” in comparing public outrage over excessive bonuses following the 2008 recession to lynchings that occurred in the Deep South a half a century ago.
“It was a poor choice of words. I never meant to offend anyone by it,” CEO Robert Benmosche said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Benmosche, whose company received an extensive public bailout, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday that outrage in Washington was intended to “get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses” and that it was “just as bad and just as wrong” as lynchings in the South.
