DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Two Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination Saturday jumped on Howard Dean's latest comment invoking the Confederate flag.
"I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," the former Vermont governor told the Des Moines Register.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., both fired off statements, CNN reported.
"I don't want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. I will win the Democratic nomination because I will be the candidate for the guys with American flags in their pickup trucks," Gephardt's statement said.
Kerry accused Dean of "pandering to the National Rifle Association."
"It is simply unconscionable for Howard Dean to embrace the most racially divisive symbol in America," Kerry's said. "I would rather be the candidate of the NAACP than the NRA."
A Dean spokesman dismissed the statements as "a desperate political attack."
