Obama walks back police criticism

President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Friday to address the spiraling controversy over his comments on the Monday arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department.

Just hours after Cambridge police union officials called on Obama to apologize for saying the officers involved in the incident behaved "stupidly," Obama conceded that he erred in his "choice of words."

Obama said he spoke to James Crowley, the sergeant who arrested Gates, "and I have to tell you that, as I said yesterday, my impression of him is that he was an outstanding police officer...and that was confirmed in the phone conversation."