SAMANTHA POWER, Barack Obama's Irish-born foreign policy adviser, has resigned after describing Hillary Clinton as "a monster" in a newspaper interview yesterday.
Ms Power, who was in Dublin this week promoting her biography of former United Nations human rights commissioner Sergio Veiera De Mello, announced her resignation in a statement that expressed deep regret over the remark.
"Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said.
"And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."
Ms Power made the remark about Mrs Clinton during an unguarded moment in an interview with the Scotsman and immediately sought to remove it from the record.
"She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything," the paper quoted her as saying.
The Clinton campaign had called for Ms Power, a Pulitzer prize- winning author and an expert on genocide who was one of Mr Obama's closest advisers, to be fired.
The Obama campaign, which has criticised Mrs Clinton for adopting a negative tone in the campaign, disavowed Ms Power's remarks as soon as they were reported. "She made the decision to resign and we accepted it," said Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama's communications director.
The Scotsman defended its decision to report Ms Power's remark, arguing that she should have made clear it was off the record before she said it.
In the interview, Ms Power said that Mrs Clinton would stop at nothing to capitalise on her victory in Ohio this week.
"We f***** up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win," she said.
"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'! But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."