April 29, 2008 Obama: Yesterday was a bunch of rants Play video

(NECN: Hickory, NC) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama commented Tuesday on his former pastor's outlandish remarks. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke to a Washington audience on Monday.

Obama said he wanted to make certain that people understand who he is.

"In some ways, what Reverend Wright said yesterday directly contradicts everything I have done in my life," said the senator.

"There wasn't anything constructive out of yesterday," said Obama. "It was a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in truth."

Obama said it was a show of disrespect to him and an insult to what he's been trying to do in this campaign.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright says the black church tradition is misunderstood by the "dominant culture" in America because it's different. Barack Obama's former pastor says attacks on his controversial sermons amount to an attack on the black church.

Barack Obama's former pastor has rejected critics who question his patriotism. In a speech to the National Press Club, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright says he served in the military and that members of his Chicago church are serving in Iraq at a time when people of privilege who haven't served are sending "American boys and girls to die in a lie."