Tony Bennett Apologizes Again For 9/11 Remarks

September 21, 2011 12:09 PM

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Tony Bennett has again addressed his controversial remarks made to Howard Stern regarding 9/11 attacks on America.

Bennett, 85, appeared on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show on Monday night to promote his upcoming release “Duets II.” The conversation took a bizarre turn after Stern asked Bennett, a veteran of World War II, how the United States should deal with the terrorists who were responsible for destroying the World Trade Center.

“They flew the plane in but we caused it,” Bennett said. “Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.” He also asked Stern, “Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Bennett apologized for his remarks on his Facebook page.

Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” Bennett was asked about his comments. He produced a card and read from it.

“I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world,” the singer said, echoing his statement on Facebook.

“Nobody loves America more than I do,” Bennett said, reading from the card.

On his Facebook page, Bennett wrote “My life experience… made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior.”

That said, not everyone is pleased with the apology. On his Facebook page, some were critical.

“My brother died in one of those buildings, and frankly you are so off base in your views of who the terrorists are, I now question your patriotism,” wrote Ron Bogdan of Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

“Nice statement by your publicist, however, we heard you loud and clear on the Stern program,” wrote Brian Eades of Omaha, Neb. “You clearly equate U.S. actions with those of the terrorists and said the U.S. somehow caused 9/11. The 3,000 people that died that day were innocent people. They were murdered in cold blood. Nothing – no matter what you can point to in U.S. policy over the years – justifies what was done or somehow mitigates the tragedy.”

What do you think of Tony Bennett’s comments and apology? Sound off below.

Tony Bennett Apologizes Again For 9/11 Remarks

ritpg

Tony is getting old and has been isolated from reality by his celebrity cocoon for a long time. I say consider the source and more to be pitied than scorned.

jazbo

I agree with p3orion. However, it was mean spirited and caustic of him to claim that Pres. Bush confided in him that he (Bush) had made a mistake. Bennett is too senile to remember anything correctly, even musical notes.

Jack Bellini

Tony, Tony, Tony, what is the matter with you? I dont buy your so-called apology. I think youre one of many people who think America is to blame for our own people getting killed. Some, like Rosie O’Donnell thought the crashes were a conspiracy by Bush and shes never retracted that thought. She said never has fire melted steel. Understand the pacifism, but not your traitorous comments.

Mary Wright Pippert

How does Rosie think they bend steel. I imagine she flunked her 8th grade Science class.

suibne

the real reason for free speech is that it allows us to know who and who is not trust worthy. cbs is already hypocritically censoring posts to this site.
suibne

letmepicyou

Of course, they’ve already censored 2 of mine because I commented on the fact that CENTCOM federal government employees are trolling this site trying to sway public opinion.

suibne

the real reason free speech is so important is that it allows you to know exactly who is and who is not trustworthy.
suibne
Eric

I am so tired of hearing the political views of entertainers… who the F&CK cares what you think about anything other than singing
Andy

I Love Tony Bennett ! But Tony, But your history is so screwed up! Who were we bombing? We didn’t even know it was Osama bin lard ass until after the planes went into the buildings. Laura Ingram was right “Shut Up And Sing”
suibe

Now we know why his heart is in San Francisco.Hey Tony, I have Dominic Salvio’s head bandage. I’m a collector of pacifist memorabilia. Yours for a small price.
derek

note to all singers, when in front of a microphone…sing.
SarasotaPete

I thought Mr. Bennett died years ago.

stechatte

No, but all his fans have…lol

sickofdems

Time for the old peoples home Tony.

Edward Morris

Bennett was right the first time. Our aggession in the Mideast did ignite the anger that led to 9/11. Still, that was an unforgivable act of terror. The people in the World Trade Center didn’t create our imperialist policies. And Bennett was right about the Iraq war being wrong. Events have demostrated that

Ed

ALL are entitled to their own opioion. He was asked his opinion and offerred one.

Interesting that “we” question his right to speak…by utilizing ours.

Disagree with him, it’s his opinion.

suibne

what the ef do you think they are doing you moron.
Ted

It’s morons like you who are responsible for the state this country is in. No one has attempted to shut TB up. In fact, we want to hear more about how that old buffoon thinks. Everyone (even you) has a right to say what they think, and everyone else has the right to express their opinions of it – and to never buy another of Bennett’s records, btw. FYI, free speech only applies to someone vis-a-vis the government. Which is why I can’t use the words I want to use to describe you.
elizabethrc

I mistakenly hit report comment. I did not intend that for you also have a right to your opinion.
I meant to hit reply.
As to Tony’s opinion. Yes, he has addressed it and we are addressing ours. I don’t think it’s right to question his right to speak, but I wish we would just stop quoting the opinions of Hollywood types who have, for the most part, far too few brains to be able to form a rational opinion.

larry

IF he has to read an apology is it real? 85 years dumb. Howerver in reading comments like “very conservative” he is not alone in stupidity. The good news is I will be around after Tony is gone. He left his heart, and cant find it now.

Ted

Real or not, there are some things that can’t be apologized away. That said,, of course it’s not real.

Stephen M. St. John

I’m with Tony Bennett all the way! 9/11 was the first major cybernetic crime; i.e., a crime involving communications control of humans and machines, from media hype to telecommunications piracy of radar and on-board flight control systems to precision detonations of the Twin Towers and World Trade Center 7. Only with the truth can we honor the slain. The truth is certainly far worse than what we’ve been told happened. For starters, we must ask why the US Department of Justice used a bogus 9/11 “Dulles Airport” surveillance video to frame Arabs for the crimes of 9/11 and to fool Americans who are as dumb as nails and as used as screws into supporting unjustified invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Check out my discovery of governmental fraud on my website at http://www.show-the-house.com/id107.html. And I stand and applaud Tony Bennett!

Lee

You and Tony Bennett should check in to the same mental hospital. By the way, you forgot to mention that the Moon landing was a hoax.
Jo Mama

Conspiracies are for the weak minded

Matt

It’s really more of a theory with the amount of evidence involved bud

Jo Mama

No it’s a conspiracy chief. There is no real evidence. Google popular mechanics 9/11 article and see how they’ve all been debunked

Chizh&Co

5+

Tomas

I checked out your website, Stephen. Always like to see what kind of nonsense the conspiracy theorists are throwing up these days. Your page purports to use the existence of what you call a “shadow” to prove fraud. However, as can be clearly seen in the pics your site provides, you have mistaken a reflection for a shadow. The other reflections in the floor to the right of the individual clearly show this. The reflection also contains sections of brightness, which shadows never contain. Your mistake destroys, in its entirety, your accusation.

Stop grasping at phantoms. You only make yourself look foolish.

Chizh&Co

Tomas, some people are sick. This is the case. Your rebuttal does nothing to him, people like him will always find something else to hang onto. Great job, though, in debunking the “theory” right away.

Seriously???!?!?

You may wanna change out the battery on your beanie — the propellor is slowing down.
Frankie D

When the aliens took you to the mother ship and probed you, it resulted in your brain turning into mush. I do wish you well in your recovery.
Twistessis

Please go back to your padded cell before you hurt yourself.
MDWhite

Please…just shut up and stop proving to the world what a completely certifiable moron you are. It’s embarrassing.

Xavier

Tony Bennett, now 85, may have left his heart in San Francisco years ago, but he’s left his brain in the seventies…HIS seventies. The US was bombing what Muslim country on 9/11?
And what were the reasons for the ’93 attack on the WTC? And the USS Cole, the embassies, the Marine barracks? And who was murdering Iraqis and throwing them off rooftops and feeding them into shredders and gassing the Kurds? And who was chopping off hands, and beheading apostates and infidels, and hanging homosexuals, and blowing up historic, ancient statues of Buddha, and oppressing women and girls in the torment of the head-to-toe, dead-in-life bodybags with eye-slits called burkas?
It is easy to wrap oneself in the mantle of humanism while turning away form the litany of human rights abuses and barbaric practices in the Middle East. But Mr. Bennett has a worldview, and it was revealed in criticism of Obama’s opponents and in his declaration of unconditional service to Obama early in the new president’s term..
Now he croons a song of relativism and moral equivalency between terrorists who attack civilians without provocation and whatever he obviously considers to be wrong in US foreign policy.
As for ‘bombing Muslims’ before 9/11…Mr. Bennet may have forgotten–if he ever knew–that it was the US that came to the aid of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo against the Serbians, when the rest of Europe, and all of the Muslim world, stood by…
jme

moron is now officially senile – put him out to pasture. what a jerk. hope no one ever goes to his performance again
Richie

There goes your album sales Tony…..you really messed up on this one.
You’re an idiot

You’re an idiot

Dave

Yep, he’s an idiot!

Tony Bennett or Rosie O Donnell

Who is Larry Silverstein, and what did he mean by deciding to “PULL” building number seven?

Chizh&Co

Stick your conspiracy theories into your arse. You’re dishonoring those who were murdered, by Islamo-nazis, on 9/11.

Mathew

No, actually you are dishonoring them by refusing to acknowledge the truth. Do some research on what happened on 9/11. Bldg. 7! Ever heard of it. Wasn’t hit by a plane. How did it fall in its own foot print? Ever heard of critical thinking? Who had the authority to get NORAD to stand down for an hour? See trans. secretary Leon Panetta’s testimony to the 9/11 commission.
Dakotahgeo

Unfortunately, you weren’t in any of the buildings that fell 9/11/01.

Steve

Why apologize? He obviously believes this. Apology not accepted, old Geezer. Time to fade away pal.
Preacher

Mr. Bennet what you should know about the human heart of ALL people is we are Sinners in need of a Saviour and that is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is NO excuse for what those Terriost did at all ! None, it was an evil act. They just hate the U.S. and Israel.
Karen

If you take the time to find out who the real Tony Bennett is you would not be surprised by his comment. He is a humanist with a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. He marched for civil rights and has long been known for his pacifism as strong as his love of country. We need to examine ourselves. Pray for peace on Sunday and the rest of the week? He is no hypocrite that’s for sure. Love you TONY!!!!

sp

Agree
Plasgash Morgavian

Still does not excuse the fact that his comments were ignorant, ill considered and naive. Who cares what he marched for if he can’t get his facts straight? He is another limo liberal and a hypocrite. His comments show how out of touch he is with the real world. Like his moron actor friends, all he is good for is reading words other people wrote for him. When he speaks without a script, lyrics or TelePrompTer, he shows what a vacuous stunade he is.
Pedro

Disagree.
Lorenzo

Karen…nice try. Why don’t you go sing cumbaya while wearing a star of david or a cross in the Mulim world, then come back and tell us again how we need to examine ourselves….you clueless dolt.
Fred

He may not be a hypocrite, but he sure has it all wrong about what happened on 9/11. One of best friends growing up, Peter Fry, was murdered that day along with 3000 others. We know these Liberal types. They make these outrageous statements about our country and than try to take it back once they see the public is pissed because of it. The true you comes out when you speak off the cuff, not when you deliver a rehearsed apology.
Lars

He’s no patriot either!!!
Ted

As one who no doubt shares Mr. Bennett’s “strong sense of what is right and what is wrong,” perhaps you can explain how he could have A) gotten it so wrong, and B) didn’t think it was wrong to say it?
Sal

..but can you please explain to me who we were bombing that caused 9/11?

Laloba

We were not bombing anyone. Bennett is misguided, misinformed, misstating the facts. Yet, his quote will be printed in the history books and our grandchildren will click their tongues and say “well, I guess we deserved it”. He was totally irresponsible in his remarks and his defenders are as irresponsible and ignorant of the facts as he showed himself to be.

Chizh&Co

Being a humanist (what exactly does it mean?) does not make one smart, apparently. Tony just stuck his foot in his mouth, and it will take him the rest of his life to dislodge it from there.
John

FU Karen. How ’bout that?
Ruth

He is a stupid Liberal is what he is. You examine yourself. I know I love my country and my family fought in World War II to make sure you are free to be as stupid as you are!!
Bob

Liberalism is a very serious and very dangerous mental illness. I pray for a cure.
Chief49

His next concert should be before all his friends in Guantanamo.
chigal

Have always liked Tony Bennett…………however his comment and apology(so called) are extremely offensive to me and any other red blooded American. Save your apology please! Go back to your painting or to San Francisco!
Larry

So much for “DUET” sales. I think that is what the apology is all about.
Wally Keasler

I agree in that he is not being hypocritical – he said exactly what he thinks on the Stern show. However, he couldn’t think of the right words on The View, so he had to read cards that were prepared for him ahead of time, which just makes him a common liar. It’s just sad. I used to enjoy hearing Tony sing – now, he’s just another Hollywood liberal.
Tony

Tony Bennett will not sing our national anthem because, in his words, “It is a song that glorifies violence.” I think he is a misguided, confused individual who has lost his bearings. People with his views do nothing to stop violence. They just let it go on and on.
Chuck

Bennett,is a senile old man who should stay silent in Frisco!!
realist

Just pure ignorance! What people kill other people totallly for religious purposes, Muslims stupid! Do idiots like you follow what goes on in the world. Every major conflict in the world today involves Muslims! If you loons on the left think that Muslims are somehow misunderstood, go live in any Muslilm country and openly practice Christianity. You will find out who the bad guys are real fast. Get your head out of your arse, you are not some kind of hero because you want to save the world, you are just ignorant. Ask Neville Chamberlain, he thought Hitler was harmless. Learn from it fool.
Joe

Tony has apparently, been indulging on the Bay-Area extreme left nectar a little too heavily…
stechatte

Why is this a “featured comment”?…more like a “featured commie”…
George Schumacher

Karen, I participated in integrating two different establishments during the civil rights era. That does not make me any more or less able to see that three thousand people were not merely murdered, they were in many cases GROUND UP ALIVE when those buildings fell. There is no excuse not to be able to see the evil that is against you and I and even Tony Bennet. For a peson of such well known stature not to be able to tell the difference is pitiful. Its like a German citizen in 1944 seeing snoke from a very distant smokestack at “that PLACE” shrugging and saying ” Well, they must have done something wrong…”
Laloba

He may be a wonderful man, but it is irresponsible, when you are a public personality to spread misinformation. We were not bombing “them” when “they” flew into the towers. Nor were we bombing their countries of origin. Stalin said that a lie repeated often enough becomes truth. My grandchildren need to know that this country was not at war with the people who attacked it….in fact, my country was sending my tax dollars to help subsidize the countries where the attackers came from. The people who stole the aircraft and murdered nearly 3,000 innocent Americans, civilians, men, women and children, were sick, twisted, perverted, hateful, destructive, misguided maniacs who had no respect for life.
Minorkle

Tony is dead wrong in his views and he can’t carry a tune either!
Bill

Karen,
your an idiot.
Thanks,
Bill
Navyguy

Retard.
Joe

October 31, 2012

Tony Bennett has broken the existing record for apologies, with his most recent apology, he has now surpassed the former king apologist, Mel Gibson..
Jack

Sounds like a traitor to me.
AV

Karen, get a life ! If Tony would of realized all the true Americans who gave their lives for this country and the suffering shared by families of victims caused by terrorist and terrorist actions…he would of kept his big mouth shut or just keep to singing !
steve

Wake up and smell the coffee lady.

michaelfury

“They were murdered in cold blood. Nothing – no matter what you can point to in U.S. policy over the years – justifies what was done or somehow mitigates the tragedy.”

Agreed.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/truth-crushed-to-earth-shall-rise/
ed

Not sure who’s a bigger waste, Stern or Bennett. 2 cowards that hide behind a mic
Ronin

Not a problem, Tony. I will accept your apology on the behalf of 23 NYPD, 37 PAPD, 343 FDNY and THOUSANDS of men, women and children who were murdered on September 11, 2001 and the thousands of men and women who have died since then in Iraq and Afghanistan with one minor clause. YOU DIE!!!

ANIMAL FARM

who did the murdering?

The Pigs

Orwhellian

You mean The Givelte Fishermen
Chizh&Co

I can’t believe this discussion is degenerating into raw anti-Semitism. Pigs likeyou should really be slaughtered,

michaelfury

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/interior-attack/

Very conservative

No need for him to apologize. We all know that the US support for Israel was the main factor in causing 9/11.

Ted

AH, that’s how we caused it. If only Bennett had said that! Perhaps we should solve the problem then by making Israel our 51st. State.

TexasRick

Actually it would be our 58th state according to Dear Leader.

Robert

Israel has nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11. Islamists hate America, hate Jews, hate Christians and seek to take over the world. Israel is a great ally of America, and millions of Arabs live there and enjoy full freedom. They are much better off than the Muslims who live in Iraq, Iran, etc.

Billy Bob

They hate each other as well.
The Facts

Israel and America enjoy a friendly relationshp but there has never been a treaty of alliance. We are not allies.

BarrysHypocrisy

If we would have let Israel take care of things years ago, the attacks on 9/11 would have NEVER happened.

OoogaBooga

Agreed.

boB

Uh-huh. So I guess what Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda says themselves is a lie too then right? They both said that main reason was because of our involvement in the MUSLIM countries around the world as well as their desire to spread Islam everywhere to hasten the 12th Imam. Learn before you talk!