Even as he picked up what could be helpful support from elsewhere, Rep. Charlie Rangel couldn’t seem to get away from questions about what started as a one-off comment to a reporter about whether the commander-in-chief wants him to win another term in Congress.
First, our Daniel Beekman was on scene today, reporting and photographing, when Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. threw his support to Rangel, sticking with him over chief rival (and Diaz’s fellow former Assemblyman), state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.
“People have said this is about the future, not the past,” said Diaz, praising Rangel in Spanish and English.
“But the past has to count for something.”
The announcement on the steps of the Bronx County Building followed Monday’s endorsement of Espaillat by ex-Bronx BP Fernando Ferrer.
(Diaz’s remarks could have well been an allusion to that endorsement, in which Ferrer said he wouldn’t badmouth Rangel,
but had to “look to the future and not the past.”
)
Rangel, 81, faces Espaillat, Joyce Johnson, Craig Schley and Clyde Williams in a Democratic primary for
that is more Latino and less black and now includes part of the Bronx.
He highlighted his support in Washington for trade with the Dominican Republic (Espaillat would be the nation’s first Dominican-American member of Congress) and noted that he has drawn the ire of conservatives for decades, from Richard Nixon to Newt Gingrich.
“You are judged by your friends, but also by your enemies,” he said.
Rangel also pointed out that he’s being targeted by
the Campaign For Primary Accountability
, an anti-incumbent superPAC that recently vowed to back Espaillat.
But he refused to weigh in on a new proposal to
after
Phillip Cardillo, a police offer killed in 1972
after being falsely called to help a fellow officer at a Nation of Islam-affiliated mosque.
As our Alison Gendar previously reported
, “Sixteen witnesses were identified in the mosque’s basement — but all were quickly let go as Mayor John Lindsay, Rep. Charles Rangel and then-Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy feared a race riot,” leading to some anger against those officials for not doing enough to address the crime.
Back to the President Obama endorsement: Rangel was asked again about — and sought to downplay — the whole issue, saying he was embarrassed that the issue of whether the White House supports his re-election bid was still coming up.
“Quite frankly, I don’t give a damn,” Rangel said when asked about White House support,
according to a tweet from Kate Taylor
, although Rangel spox Ronnie Sykes disputes the quote.
Update
: So at 7:27 p.m., Sykes sends me this — which obviously confirms the quote — as well as a rather detailed clarification/defense:
Obama’s endorsement has always been important to the Congressman.
He has successfully worked with the President on numerous occasions to help get key pieces of legislation passed such as Obama’s Jobs Bill and the healthcare reform bill, which came out of the Congressman’s committee.
RANGEL’S STATEMENT FROM TODAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE: “I find myself embarrassed that at a crucial time in our county that the President would be asked his position in a race between democrats at a local level. I don’t think that question is fair to the President, quite frankly I don’t give a damn.”
When he said “quite frankly, I don’t give a damn,” let me be clear, he was referring to the reporter’s question about President Obama’s endorsement. The Congressman was displeased by the question that pits one democrat against another, when as a country, state and city we are facing some of our most challenging times in history.
At no time did Congressman Rangel imply that he did not want the President’s support.
