In an interview on Sunday night with Trayvon Martin's parents, Geraldo Rivera looked to make amends for his controversial comments surrounding the death of their son.
Rivera held a six-minute interview with Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton on "Geraldo At Large," offering sympathy from the start. He opened the interview by thanking them for coming on the show and "please -- this is the first time I've spoken to you -- accept my condolences for your awful loss."
In unison, Martin's parents responded with a "thank you."
Earlier on Sunday afternoon, Rivera tweeted about the appearance by Martin's parents:
He held to his word, elaborating on what he meant by those comments.
"What I was trying to do was caution parents that allowing kids to wear hoodies or similar clothing in certain circumstances, particularly if they were minority young men, could be dangerous," Rivera explained. "But I never intended to hurt anyone’s feelings and certainly Sybrina and Tracy, I never intended to hurt your feelings. I want to personally convey my deepest apologies to both of you. I am sorry, Tracy, if anything I said added to your misery.”
Tracy Martin added his own thoughts on that part of Rivera's apology, thanking him for his words.
“Your apology is accepted," Martin said. "Let me just add one thing with the wearing of the hoodie. I don’t think America knows that, in fact, at the time of the incident when he initially made the call, it was raining. So Trayvon had every right to have on his hood. He was protecting himself from the rain. So if being suspicious, walking in the rain with your hoodie on is a crime, then I guess the world is doing something wrong.”
On Friday, March 23, Rivera sparked outrage over his comments on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" regarding Martin's clothing. He said that "the hoodie is as much responsible" for the teen's death as George Zimmerman was.
Three days later, Rivera faced petitions demanding an apology to Martin's parents. In lieu of responding directly to the family, he tweeted:
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