© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman, Charles Johnson had given just one interview in the past 26 years as Giants owner, until Tuesday.
Johnson had emailed Schulman firsthand about some details he wanted to clear up in a recent controversy, in which Johnson and his wife, Ann, donated $2,700 to the campaign of Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi. Hyde-Smith recently came under fire for saying of a local rancher, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” Johnson told Schulman that he had initiated his donation to Hyde-Smith one day before she was quoted saying those things.
Johnson wanted to clear up those details, so Schulman told Johnson to call him. He did, which he almost never does, and the two had a “relaxed” conversation about the recent incident.
Schulman joined KNBR’s Murph and Mac Wednesday morning and recounted the rare interview with Johnson.
“He wasn’t (defensive),” Schulman said. “The comments he made about, where I think people misinterpreted, where he said, ‘I am sorry they feel that way.’ It was directly to a question I asked him about how he feels about being called a racist and how you have these people in the blue Bay Area who are upset that this owner turns out to be a three-time Republican donor, if you separate out the two donations that got him in trouble. And he said, ‘Well, it’s more like, I am sorry you feel that way, but I am who I am, and I am not going to change my beliefs.’”
Chronicle political reporter John Wildermuth wrote a story Tuesday that showed Johnson is one of the world’s biggest GOP donors. Yet Schulman says Johnson “has friends all over the political spectrum.” Schulman also added that after he published his story Tuesday of his interview with Johnson, Schulman received no emails from readers claiming Johnson is a racist, which generally happens with exclusive stories on controversial topics.
“I have never heard anybody nobody has contacted me or sent me,” Schulman said, “usually people come out of the woodwork when you write these stories, nobody has contacted me and said hey I have a story about Charles Johnson that shows he really is a racist.”
Listen to the podcast below.
