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Washington: After winning the backing of an influential Texas televangelist, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain abruptly rejected the pastor's endorsement after more of his controversial remarks became public - including a sermon in which he says the Nazis "operated on God's behalf" to drive Jews from Europe to Israel.
McCain had distanced himself from Reverend John Hagee's anti-Catholic remarks describing the church as a "great w****", a statement for which Hagee apologised earlier this month.
But the Arizona senator, who wanted Hagee's support to shore up his uncertain standing among evangelical conservatives, had not repudiated the endorsement until Thursday.
"Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them," McCain said in a statement. "I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well."
The controversy is the latest intersection of faith and politics in this year's presidential race.
Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's association with the Rev Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the former pastor at his home church in Chicago, threatened to derail his candidacy after videos surfaced of Wright making a series of remarks that many viewed as anti-American and racially divisive.
Among them, Wright condemned the country for past racism, said the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the fruit of unjust US foreign policies, and suggested he agrees with rumours that the US government had developed and used the Aids virus as an act of genocide against black people.
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| This article on the national political campaigns in the United States is from The New York Times. It was specially selected and prepared by the editors of The New York Times News Service. |
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