President George W. Bush withheld support this evening for Trent Lott as the beleaguered Senate Republican leader staged a last ditch damage control effort over comments backing a 1948 segregationist presidential bid.
With one leading Republican already saying he will challenge Lott for the post of Senate majority leader, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer reaffirmed that Bush had found Lott's comments "offensive and repugnant".
Lott has been at the centre of a political storm since making comments backing a presidential bid by Strom Thurmond focused on the segregation of blacks and whites. The comments were made at Thurmond's 100th birthday party earlier this month.
The Senate leader spent today preparing for an appearance on a black television channel in a bid to overcome the controversy.
Lott again failed to get any help from Bush at the White House.
"The president does not believe that Trent Lott needs to resign. The president thinks that what Trent Lott said was wrong, and the president found those remarks offensive," said Fleischer.
His comments indicated that the White House would not necessarily oppose a challenge to Lott, whose statement has angered a lot of party officials concerned that he has undermined efforts to entice the black vote.
"The White House doesn't comment on every idea or every motion," spokesman Ari Fleischer said in response to a deluge of questions about Lott's fate and Republican Senator Don Nickles' effort to unseat the Mississippi lawmaker.
Key Republicans have called for a vote of confidence in the Mississippi lawmaker despite his apologies for the remarks.
AFP