Skip navigation

Obama adviser resigns; called Clinton ‘monster’

Power told newspaper rival candidate stooping to low tactics

Video
Obama adviser resigns
March 7: A Barack Obama adviser resigns after calling Hillary Clinton “a monster.” MSNBC's Amy Robach talks with NBC's Athena Jones, The Washingtonpost.com's Chris Clillizza and The Wall Street Journal's Sara Murray.

MSNBC

Video
Democrats play rough
March 7: Both Democratic campaigns engaged in attacks and counterattacks after a high-level resignation from an Obama adviser. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

Nightly News

Video
Reporter who got 'monster' remark speaks
March 7: MSBNC's Contessa Brewer talks with The Scotsman's Gerri Peev, the journalist whose interview led to the resignation of Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser for calling Hillary Clinton "a monster."

MSNBC

EPA
Road to the nomination
Sen. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Cartoons: Obama
MSNBC.com's editorial cartoonists weigh in on Obama's candidacy.
Image: Barack Obama.
Polaris
Slide show: A call to serve
Sen. Barack Obama answers the call to public service.
Slide show
Image: Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama
Race for the presidency
The trips, the speeches, and the moments of Decision ’08. A look at the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain.

more photos

updated 5:02 p.m. ET March 7, 2008

LONDON - A Barack Obama adviser resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster."

Samantha Power, an unpaid foreign policy adviser and Harvard professor, announced her resignation in a statement provided by the Obama campaign in which she expressed "deep regret."

"Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said. "And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

Power's interview Monday was published Friday in a Scottish newspaper, even though she tried to keep it from appearing in print.

"She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything," The Scotsman quoted her as saying.

As U.S. news media picked up on the remark, Power issued a statement of apology and the campaign said Obama decried the characterization.

The Clinton campaign held a conference call with several of the former first lady's congressional supporters calling for Power to be fired.

"Senator Obama has called for change, and a new kind of politics," said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks. "This is the worst kind of politics."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson noted that those involved in the Clinton campaign had been removed when they spoke of Obama's teenage drug use or helped spread the false rumor that the Illinois senator is a Muslim.

He defended his own comparison of Obama to independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, saying he'd been responding to "attacks" from the Obama campaign regarding Clinton's tax returns and real estate transactions. That, he said, was a clear reference to Whitewater and so it was appropriate to bring up Starr in that context.

  Picking the president: The candidates
Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed.


John McCain               

Barack Obama

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links

Resource guide