As we noted yesterday, during an interview on Monday’s edition of Howard Stern’s Sirius-XM satellite radio show, legendary singer Tony Bennett told Stern that that on 9/11:
“They flew the plane in but we caused it,” Bennett said. “Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.” He also asked Stern, “Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
CBS New York reports today that during the 85-year old performer’s appearance today on The View, he read a pre-written statement from a card in an attempt to apologize:
Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” Bennett was asked about his comments. He produced a card and read from it.
“I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world,” the singer said, echoing his statement on Facebook.
“Nobody loves America more than I do,” Bennett said, reading from the card.
On his Facebook page, Bennett wrote “My life experience… made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior.”
That said, not everyone is pleased with the apology. On his Facebook page, some were critical.
“My brother died in one of those buildings, and frankly you are so off base in your views of who the terrorists are, I now question your patriotism,” wrote Ron Bogdan of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Interesting venue to attempt a modicum of contrition for hateful 9/11 remarks, I must say, though likely it was simply the first talk show he’s been on since the Stern appearance. But has anyone from The View ever apologized for its former co-host’s steel and sanity-melting thoughts on the topic?
Update: “What a straw man response,” John Nolte writes at Big Hollywood. “No one is accusing Bennett of not loving his country, we’re criticizing his insulting, provably false, and immoral statement that what happened on September 11, 2001, was our fault — that we brought it on ourselves.”
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