Republican National Convention organizers said apologies had
been extended to CNN for what they called Tuesday's "deplorable"
incident in which racist comments were leveled by two unidentified convention
attendees at a CNN camera operator who is black.
On a conference call with media outlets, Kyle Downey,
Republican National Convention press secretary, and Russ Schriefer, Romney for
President strategist, condemned the comments "in the highest possible
way," adding that organizers could not have been more clear that it was
reprehensible conduct. He said there had been immediate and continued
conversations with CNN, including apologies.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer had reported on air that two attendees
had been immediately ejected from the hall after throwing peanuts at the
camerawoman and saying: "This is how we feed animals." CNN said it
had worked with convention officials to address the matter.
A CNN spokesperson confirmed that the RNC had officially apologized.
Organizers on the call Thursday refused to comment on Fox
News reports that the planned "mystery" speaker for Thursday night
would be Clint Eastwood. But they did say that some 15 Olympians would be in
attendance, with three speaking including 2012 skeet shooting gold medalist Kim
Rhode.
