As alluded to elsewhere Senator Clinton's comments require a Special Comment tonight.
I need to be brief, but there's a preview below. We can sometimes have our most innocent remarks misinterpreted into the most violent of inferences - I know this firsthand. And we are still responsible for the words, no matter the intent.
The use of the word "assassination" is not open to misinterpretation. It has no place, not with our country's history.
Those words, Senator?
You actually invoked the nightmare of political assassination.
You actually invoked the spectre of an inspirational leader, at the seeming moment of triumph, for himself and a battered nation yearning to breathe free, silenced forever.
You actually used the word "assassination" in the middle of a campaign with a loud undertone of racial hatred -- and gender hatred -- and political hatred.
You actually used the word "assassination" in a time when there is a fear, unspoken but vivid and terrible, that our again-troubled land and fractured political landscape might target a black man running for president.
Or a white man.
Or a white woman!
You actually used those words, in this America, Senator while running against an African-American against whom the death threats started the moment he declared his campaign?
You actually used those words, in this America, Senator, while running to break your "greatest glass ceiling" and claiming there are people who would do anything to stop you?
You!
Senator -- never mind the implications of using the word "assassination" in any connection to Senator Obama...
What about you?
You cannot say this!
Here's Keith's television presentation on his show "Countdown: With Keith Olbermann."