Obama defends his church

Politico columnist Ben Smith posted the following transcript, which he obtained from Carrie Budoff Brown. The interview is scheduled to air on the Michael Smerconish Show on 1210 AM WPHT in Philadelphia, according to Smith.

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF OBAMA INTERVIEW

OBAMA: I will be honest with you that I didn't have that many conversations with him over the last year just because I have been so busy. I haven't been going to church. I wasn't hearing a lot of these comments. The ones that are most offensive are ones that I never knew about until they were reported on. I had had conversations with him in the past - in fact from the day I first met him -- about some of his views.

Understand this, something else that has not been reported on enough is despite these very offensive views, this guy has built one of the finest churches in Chicago. This is not a crackpot church. Witness the fact that Bill Clinton invited him to the White House when he was having his personal crises. This is a pillar of the community and if you go there on Easter on this Easter Sunday and you sat down there in the pew you would think this is just like any other church....

So I don't want to suggest that somehow, the loops you have been seeing typifies the services all the time. That is the danger of the YouTube era. It doesn't excuse what he said. But it gives it some perspective.

Q: Would the speech have come as a surprise to Wright?

OBAMA: No, I think he recognizes. When some these remarks first came to light were a year ago, and I actually called him and it created some tensions that were reported in the newspapers. He understood that his perspective on some of these issues were very different from mine and hopefully we could agree to disagree on some of these issues. I wasn't familiar with some of the most offensive remarks that had come up otherwise we probably would have a more intense conversation.