Campaign Aide to Bush Fired for Racial Slur

A press aide to President Bush’s reelection campaign has been fired after allegedly directing a racial slur at a black reporter during a presidential visit to Detroit last month, the White House announced Wednesday.

Deputy presidential press secretary Judy Smith said the aide, Bobby Carr, was let go for “inappropriate conduct.” Smith said Carr was dismissed after a Secret Service investigation of the incident.

Ken Cole, a reporter for the Detroit News, said Carr called him a “nigger” during the President’s visit to Michigan, according to Wednesday’s editions of the newspaper.

Carr was fired Tuesday in Houston, where he had been helping with press logistics for the Republican National Convention. Carr worked for the White House at the time of the alleged incident but had since moved to the Bush-Quayle campaign.

During the Bush visit to Michigan, Cole complained to Carr that he had not received proper press credentials. Cole said Carr then turned to another staffer and said: “This nigger reporter is giving me a hard time. I don’t know why he’s complaining. He’s probably just going to write a hatchet job anyway.”

Carr told the News that he finds the word “offensive and repulsive.” But when asked if he had made the slur against Cole, he would not deny it. “I can’t take that extra step,” Carr said.

Presidential Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater was quoted as telling the News that Carr was fired Tuesday after he would not deny making the slur.

“Anyone who cannot deny such a statement should not be working for this campaign or for this White House,” Fitzwater was quoted as saying. “We have no room on our staff for someone like that.”