Utah NAACP Officials Demand U.S. Senator Apologize For Insult

Jet, Sept 6, 1999

Utah Senator Bob Bennett should apologize for using a race-specific scenario to describe what he believes it would take to prevent Texas Governor George W. Bush from winning the Republican presidential nomination, Utah's NAACP leaders say.

Bennett, a Republican, said during an August 13 meeting with the editorial board of the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, UT, that Bush seems to have a lock on the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

"Unless George W. steps in front of a bus or some woman comes forward, let's say some Black woman comes forward with an illegitimate child that he fathered within the last 18 months, or some other scenario that you could be equally creative in thinking of, George W. Bush will be the nominee," Bennett told the newspaper.

Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake City branch of the NAACP, said Bennett "owes the community and the nation a public apology." But she said she didn't think he should resign.

Edward Lewis Jr., who serves as president of the NAACP's tri-state conference for Idaho, Nevada and Utah, said that Sen. Bennett "felt very comfortable in his Whiteness" to make such a remark.

Lewis called on Bennett to consider all his constituents, "not just the White population."

In a statement issued by his office, Bennett said he "certainly regrets" making the comment. "Those who heard his remark firsthand, including the publisher of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, have said that they interpreted no racial overtones."

Bennett said that he plans to meet with NAACP representatives to "express these sentiments personally."

The Ogden newspaper's publisher, W. Scott Trundle, was unavailable for comment.