4 years ago
Last week, while campaigning in southwest Virginia, the Republican incumbent singled out a volunteer for his political rival, Democrat Jim Webb calling him a "macaca". The volunteer was of Indian decent. That has touched off a firestorm of criticism.
Determined to quickly put the controversy behind him, Virginia Senator George Allen met with local leaders of the US-India community to apologize again about those comments.
It was not "damage control 101". It was graduate school foot-work today. George Allen's meeting with local Indian community leaders was scheduled for this afternoon, within hours of the story breaking yesterday. 9NEWS was there when Allen spoke to the group of 20 citizens.
"One makes mistakes and folks are going to pile on and I have no one to blame but myself for it. What bothers me the most about all of this is that it?s so contrary to who I am. It tears my guts out," says Allen to 9NEWS NOW reporter Gary Reals.
Whether Allen allayed concerns of U.S. Indian community leaders in today's meeting is not a foregone conclusion:
"We are working towards to getting satisfied. It?s a work in progress," says Sanjay Puri of the U.S.-India Political Action Community.
Allen insists he didn't mean to hurt or demean UVA senior and Democratic campaign volunteer S.R. Sidarth:
"I didn?t know what his name was. I don?t know what macaca means. It was meaningless, the whole point of it, the whole intent was to send a message to Jim Webb," says Allen.
Yesterday Sidarth told us he'd appreciate a personal apology from Senator Allen and apparently is going to get one. The Senator expects to see him on his tour in the near future and will personally apologize.
Written By 9NEWS NOW
