Calls for Times to retract quotes, restates stance

Bundy, appearing on the Alex Jones radio show, demands that the New York Times retract its quotes of him making what are considered by many to be racist remarks about African-Americans. In the interview, he reiterates his views that blacks may have been better off as slaves. Bundy says he wants to tell “the black community” that he has “gained more respect and more love for you in the last few weeks than I ever had.” He then says:

Put it this way, I said I’m wondering, I’m wondering if you’re better off. The young women are having abortions, and the young men are being thrown in jail, and your older women are sitting out on the sidewalk with your children and grandchildren and they don’t seem to be happy. And what I’m wondering is are you better off in this type of slavery than when you were home with your family unit with your gardens, with your chickens, with your men working and your family life. Are you better off now or were you better off then? I’m a-wondering these things. … [I]t seems to me like maybe they were happier, maybe they did have better families,and their family structure was better [under slavery].

Jones attempts to explain Bundy’s comments by saying that blacks have “traded a new form of slavery for an old form of slavery,” and says that Bundy’s position is the same “libertarian, conservative refrain that I’ve heard from every libertarian and conservative black leader I’ve had on this show.” Bundy says the Times is “totally wrong” for labeling his remarks as racist, and says the Times misquoted him. In a separate interview, he apologizes for his comments:

I hope I didn’t offend anybody. If I did, I ask for your forgiveness…But I meant what I said. It comes from the heart.