UPDATE: MORE REV. WRIGHT AUDIO – Townhall: Romney ‘repudiates’ conservative group’s planned Rev. Wright attacks

***UPDATED WITH NEW AUDIO FROM REV. WRIGHT INTERVIEW***

This. is. frustrating.

TOWNHALL – In an exclusive interview with Townhall, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney rebuked a conservative group that is reportedly planning to assail President Obama over his 20-year relationship with controversial Chicago pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

“I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described. I would like to see this campaign focus on the economy, on getting people back to work, on seeing rising incomes and growing prosperity — particularly for those in the middle class of America. And I think what we’ve seen so far from the Obama campaign is a campaign of character assassination. I hope that isn’t the course of this campaign. So in regards to that PAC, I repudiate what they’re thinking about … It’s interesting that we’re talking about some Republican PAC that wants to go after the president [on Wright]; I hope people also are looking at what he’s doing, and saying ‘why is he running an attack campaign? Why isn’t he talking about his record?'”

We’ve always been critical of Mitt McCain for his lack of testicular fortitude when it comes to exposing Obama for what he truly is. Romney would rather try and keep it ‘civil’ or something.

Ugh.

***

UPDATE: This is the stuff that Romney doesn’t want to be associated with. Below is some of the Rev. Wright audio that The Blaze obtained this morning exclusively:

One example Wright shared is an article in which David Axelrod, a key figure in the Obama camp, is quoted. The article apparently discusses how Axelrod interacted with the Rev. Otis Moss, another pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ. The topic of conversation? Figuring out how the Obamas could stay at the house of worship, while trying to distance the church from Wright.

Wright also made some intriguing claims about the Obama family and its purported lack of interest in attending church. Since assuming office, the president has consistently faced criticism over his infrequent church attendance. According to Wright, this is par for the course.

“Church is not their thing. It was never their thing,” Wright says of Barack and Michelle Obama. “She was not the kind of black woman whose momma made her go to church, made her go to Sunday school…so the church was not an integral part of their lives before they got married — after they got married.”

After Wright made these comments, Klein said, “But the church was an integral part of his politics…because he needed that base.” Wright agreed with this statement, at one point saying “correct.”

Among his many other claims, Wright told Klein that a fellow faith leader approached him in 2010 to allege that it wasn’t just Republicans who were working to exploit his fiery image. The controversial pastor claimed that another preacher told him that the Hillary Clinton campaign was paying African American reverends to openly attack Wright.

With politics being a relatively dirty game, these allegations are noteworthy. Considering the fallout from Wright’s rhetoric, it is entirely possible that the Clinton camp was looking to capitalize:

He then apparently told Klein he has no regrets and that he actually wishes he had said more on the subject of compassion and helping one’s fellow man (the purported issues at the heart of his well-known controversial speeches).

“God does not bless everything we do as human beings…when you oppress the widows, when you have no compassion for the poor God condemns that,” Wright proclaimed. “Why are you going to be taken back? I wish I had said more, so I had more not to take back.”

Now that Wright is distant from his former congregant, it‘s intriguing to hear how he views Obama’s leadership.

“We keep forgetting that Barack Obama was selected before he was elected. You didn’t select him. He’s accountable to the ones who selected him and who paid for him to be the president,” Wright said. “Why do you think Wall Street got a break? They selected him Why do you think the Big 3 got a buy-out? They selected him. Why do you think he stands up and says ‘I am a Zionist?’”

These institutions, Wright maintains, had the money to select Obama to be a Democratic nominee and to inevitably arrive in the White House:

During the discussion, Wright told Klein that Obama said, ”You know what your problem is. You have to tell the truth.” The faith leader maintained that this isn’t a bad problem to have and that Obama, being a politician, has transformed into an individual who is not necessarily rooted in truth.

“Politicians don’t have to tell the truth. Truth is what we say it is. Well, I somehow can’t live with that,” Wright told Klein. “That’s why I could never be a politician. I think that the transformed Barack has become a politician.”

When the author asked when, exactly, Obama made this so-called evolution, Wright said he believes it happened when he assumed the presidency:


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