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Reaction to Clinton's speech varies

October 17, 1995
Web posted at: 12:57 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton's speech Monday on race relations in the United States drew criticism from Republicans and from the Nation of Islam's Minister Louis Farrakhan, who addressed the speech during his own at the Million Man March in Washington.

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Clinton praised the African American men at the march, but told his Austin, Texas audience that "one million men do make right one man's message of malice and division." (115K AIFF sound or 115K WAV sound)

A few hours later, Farrakhan said that the president should "clear the scales from your eyes, sir, and give ear to what we say."

"I am not a malicious person, I'm not filled with malice," he said.

Farrakhan also said that Clinton "did not dig deep enough at the malady that divides black and white in order to effect a solution to the problem."

House Speaker Newt Gingrich offered a similar comment.

"I think, quite frankly, that the president's halfway there," Gingrich said. "I commend him for trying to move in the right direction...but I think we need to move beyond sensitivity training and talking with each other about race."

Republican presidential hopefuls were quick to blast the president's speech as well. Former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole both took issue with Clinton's refusal to directly name Farrakhan in his speech.

"President Clinton should have had the courage to condemn him by name," Alexander said. "The reason we have a president is to provide leadership at times like these."

Dole echoed Alexander's comments. "I am shocked and dismayed that President Clinton did not find the moral courage to denounce Louis Farrakhan by name in his speech today in Texas," he said. "Farrakhan is a racist and anti-Semite, unhinged by hate. He has no place in American public life, and all who would lead must say so."

White House press secretary Mike McCurry said that the president did not name Farrakhan -- or Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective caught on tape using racial epithets -- because the references to the two men were clear.

But not all were critical of the president's speech. Akbar Muhammad, the international representative of the Nation of Islam, called the speech "the greatest speech of (Clinton's) life."

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"...He admitted the problem that America has been hiding for years," Muhammad said, adding that the president would not have made the speech had it not been for Farrakhan.

U.S. Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, who did not attend the Million Man March, said that the president's speech was an important one.

"I think the president spoke in a very forceful, in a straightforward and aggressive manner," Lewis said on CNN Monday. "He said in effect that there is not any room in our society for words of bigotry, racism, or anti-Semitism. I think the president said what had to be said." (193K AIFF sound or 193K WAV sound)


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