Top Republican senator attacked for race comments

Senator Trent Lott, the Republican poised to become leader of the Senate, was under increasing pressure last night for comments in which he appeared to condone the policy of racial segregation.

Despite having apologised for his remarks, which he said were a "poor choice of words", critics demanded his resignation after learning that Mr Lott had made almost identical comments more than 20 years ago.

Mr Lott, in line to be Senate majority leader for the second time when the new Congress convenes next month, caused outrage after speaking last week at a party to celebrate the 100th birthday of fellow Republican Strom Thurmond, who ran for the presidency in 1948 while supporting segregation.

At the party, Mr Lott said Mississippians were proud to have voted for Mr Thurmond "and if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either".

Under pressure, Mr Lott apologised for the comment, which he said had been meant as nothing more than light-hearted praise for Mr Thurmond, who will retire next month after a record 48 years in the Senate, as member for South Carolina.

"A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past," he said. "Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologise to anyone who was offended by my statement." But yesterday the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that Mr Lott had made almost identical comments more than two decades ago. At a rally with Mr Thurmond on 2 November 1980, at the Coliseum Ramada Inn in Jackson, Mississippi, Mr Lott told more than 1,000 people: "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today." Former vice-president Al Gore led Democrats in criticising Mr Lott's remarks as racist and demanding that he apologise or face censure by the Senate.

Others went further. Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, called for Mr Lott's resignation. "Senator Lott's statement is the kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of the Congress," he said.

"His remarks are dangerously divisive and certainly unbefitting a man who is to hold such a highly esteemed leadership role as the majority leader of the Senate. Mr Lott should resign from the position of majority leader-elect to make way for another member of the Republican Party whose moral compass is pointed toward improving race relations and not dredging up this nation's poor, polarising performance of the past." Members of the Congressional Black Caucus voiced similar criticism. The newly elected caucus chairman, Elijah Cummings, said the remark "sends a chilling message to all people".

With the row showing no sign of abating, the White House had to defend him. President George Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said: "[He] has apologised for his statement, and the President understands that is the final word from Senator Lott." The only black Republican in Congress, Representative J C Watts of Oklahoma, said he had talked to Mr Lott and was assured the remarks praising Mr Thurmond were not racially motivated. "We should not trivialise the issue of race for political gain," he said.

Marty Wiseman, head of the Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, said: "Trent Lott is not known as a racist person. He is known as a very conservative person, but to say he is elected despite black voters is going too far. His agenda is simply different from that of many black voters."