OBAMA TELLS TENNESSEE DEMOCRATS TO UNITE DURING PARTY PRIMARY
Kris Alingod
Gant Daily
91/2008-08-07.html
Aug 7 2008
PA
Washington, D.C.(AHN) – Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) weighed in on the
racially charged race for the Democratic nomination in Tennessee’s
9th congressional district on Thursday as voters in the state went
to the polls.
"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics,
and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee," Obama said
in an emailed statement. "It’s time to turn the page on a politics
driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to
lift up our communities and our country." Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
is in a bid to seek a second term as the only white U.S. congressman
to represent a predominantly black district. He faces Nikki Tinker,
an African American, who has ignited controversy by launching an ad
criticizing Cohen for not supporting efforts to remove a statue of
Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Klu Klux Klan leader.
Fliers asking, "Why do Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus?" and
written by an African-American minister who supports Tinker have also
been distributed in Memphis.
Cohen, who is Jewish, sponsored a recently passed bill in the
House "apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of
African-Americans." He has reportedly been accused of assault after
he threw out a filmmaker from his home on Wednesday.
Cohen says Tinker has the support of Armenian-Americans and that the
filmmaker, Peter Musurlian, has inaccurately reported about his House
bill condemning Turkey’s treatment of Armenian during World War II as
"genocide."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
