The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for saying Barack Obama is “talking down to black people” during what Jackson thought was a private conversation with a FOX News reporter Sunday. See video above.

Jackson was speaking at the time about Obama’s speeches in black churches and his support for faith-based charities. Jackson added to the reporter, “I want to cut his nuts off.”

At a hastily arranged news conference Wednesday evening in Chicago, Jackson said he supports Obama “unequivocally” and that he hopes to “get this behind me.”

“I have great passion for this campaign and traveled across the country … arguing the case for the campaign,” Jackson said. “And this thing I said in a hot-mic statement that’s interpreted as a distraction, I offer apology for that. I don’t want harm or hurt to come to this campaign.”

He said, “They were hurtful and wrong … but we have a relationship that can survive this.”

Jackson said in a written statement he was trying to emphasize that Obama’s moral message should “not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy.”

Jackson said the conversation “does not reflect any disparagement on my part for the historic event in which we are involved or my pride in Senator Barack Obama, who is leading it, whom I have supported by crisscrossing this nation in every level of media and audience from the beginning in absolute terms.”

Jackson told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he doesn’t remember exactly what he said Sunday but that he was “very sorry” for his comments about Obama. He called his comments “a side light in a broader conversation about urban disparities.”

Jackson said he has called Obama’s campaign to apologize.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton noted that the Illinois senator grew up without his father and has spoken and written at length about the issues of parental responsibility and fathers participating in their children’s lives, and of society’s obligation to provide “jobs, justice and opportunity for all.”

“He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Reverend Jackson’s apology,” Burton said.

Jackson’s son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., also issued a statement condemning his father’s comments in the video below.

A lot of people are now wondering what other black people really think of Barack Obama. We know what Jackson thinks.

Bill O’Reilly just played what Jesse Jackson said about Barack Obama, when he thought his microphone was off, Jackson said:

“See Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based … I wanna cut his nuts off. Barack … he’s talking down to black people.”

Is this too honest? Jackson appears to believe Obama is an elitist, and wants to increase racial divisiveness.

O’Reilly did not play the entire sound bite, which is much worse than the quote above.

Click here to hear what Jackson said in response to his crude comments being aired.

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At 8 PM EST tonight Fox News will play a sound bite of Jesse Jackson. Thinking his microphone was not on, Jackson made some "critical" comments about Barack Obama, and he’s now doing damage control. Jackson said ahead of Fox News playing the sound bite:

"This is a sound bite in a broader conversation about urban policy and racial disparities. I feel very distressed because I’m supportive of this campaign and with the senator, what he has done and is doing…I said he comes down as speaking down to black people. The moral message must be a much broader message. What we need really is racial justice and urban policy and jobs and health care. That’s a range of issues on the menu…Then I said something I regret was crude. It was very private. And very much a sound bite."

Jackson reportedly did not want to elaborate on the context of his remarks, except to say he was trying to explain that Obama was hurting his relationship with black voters by recently conducting "moral" lectures at African-American churches.

Whoa! Well … at least Jackson was being honest. Watch the video below for Jesse’s reaction to CNN who asked him about the comments, and said they couldn’t repeat the comments on-the-air because they were so crude.

Stay tuned … we’ll have the sound bite up on HG as soon as it becomes available.

Update: Click here to read what Jesse Jackson said about Obama.