McCain Rejects Backing of Controversial Preacher

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

One other campaign note. Today Senator John McCain rejected the endorsement of a political ally, conservative Texas preacher John Hagee. That rejection, after a new audiotape emerged of a Hagee sermon from the 1990s. Hagee says Adolf Hitler was a hunter fulfilling a Biblical prophecy, that the Nazi leader was sent by God to drive Jews back to the Holy Land so they could fulfill their destiny there.

Hagee previously caused consternation with a statement calling the Catholic Church the great whore and a false cult system. McCain strongly rejected those statements, but is only now rejecting the Hagee endorsement, and in turn Hagee says he's withdrawing his support.

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