Hillary Clinton denounces anti-black supporter

The 84-year-old Dallas Latina leader said that "when the blacks had the numbers, they never did anything to support us. ... There's a lot of hurt feelings about that. And I don't think we're going to get over it anytime soon."

In a separate interview Wednesday night, Callejo seemed to repeat the assertion to The Dallas Morning News even as she seemed to distance herself from her own words.  "I have been told by a lot of people that they did not trust him because he is black," she said. "They don't trust him because of the local people. But that is minor, compared to his lack of experience. The most important thing is that there is no track record with him with Hispanics," she said.  Callejo then added: "I don't think it is fair that that feeling exists."

Callejo made her initial comment in an interview with a local TV station, but when interviewed by the same station, Sen. Clinton originally declined to reject Callejo's support.

Clinton said she wanted voters to "look beyond race and gender, look at our records, look what we stand for, look what we've done." But after confirming Callejo's remarks, Clinton's campaign later issued a statement that Clinton "denounces and rejects them."

The use of both words was possibly a response to criticism that Sen. Clinton raised herself when Sen. Obama said on Tuesday that he "denounced" Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitism.  Clinton said at the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday that there is a difference between denouncing and rejecting and pushed Obama to say that he rejected Farrakhan's support as well, which Obama did.

Voters in Texas go to the polls on Tuesday, March 4, and Clinton is expected to do well among Hispanic voters.