AIG CEO Benmosche apologizes for inflammatory comments
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American International Group Inc. CEO Robert Benmosche met Friday in Washington with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to apologize for insensitive comments he made last month that highly offended Rep. Cummings.
Mr. Benmosche's remarks in a Wall Street Journal article, comparing the public anger over bonuses paid to AIG workers to lynch mobs in the South, prompted Rep. Cummings to call for the AIG CEO's resignation.
In the article, Mr. Benmosche said the public criticism of the AIG bonuses in the wake of the government's bailout of the large commercial insurer was like the long-ago lynch mobs in the South, adding “…I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.”
“I was very pleased to meet with Rep. Elijah Cummings earlier today,” Mr. Benmosche said in a statement AIG released Friday. “In our meeting, I apologized for my reference to the South and the impact that it had on him and others.”
Rep. Cummings also released a statement Friday that indicated his anger with the AIG CEO had subsided.
“I appreciate that Mr. Benmosche came to Washington to meet with me today. The American taxpayers rescued AIG and saved the financial system threatened by AIG's reckless actions, and obviously any comparison of lynchings with efforts to protect taxpayer funds is offensive and misguided,'' Rep. Cummings said in the statement. “I take Mr. Benmosche's actions today as recognition of these facts, and I appreciate and accept his sincere apology to me and to the taxpayers of this country.”
