got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved , '' he said . Obama also spoke briefly with the arrested professor , Henry Louis Gates Jr. , who is a friend of the president , the White House reported . He and Gates had a `` positive discussion '' about his call to Crowley on Friday afternoon , the White House said . Obama also invited Gates `` to join him with Sgt. Crowley at the White House in the near future . '' In an e-mail Friday to CNN 's Don Lemon , Gates wrote , `` I was very pleased that the president called me today , and I was pleased that he proposed that I meet with Sgt. Crowley at the White House , since I had offered to meet with him since last Monday . `` I am eager for this to be used as a teaching moment to improve racial relations in America , '' said the e-mail . `` This is certainly not about me . '' His attorney , Charles Ogletree , told Lemon
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Obama said Friday he spoke with the police officer who arrested a Harvard professor and told the officer he did not mean to malign the Cambridge Police Department when he said police acted stupidly . President Obama on Friday explains to reporters the details of a phone conservation with Sgt. James Crowley . The president acknowledged that his words `` helped to contribute to ratcheting '' up the situation when he criticized the manner in which Sgt. James Crowley arrested professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. . `` I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically , '' Obama told reporters . `` I could have calibrated those words differently , and I told this to Sgt. Crowley . '' Watch Obama describe talk '' Obama spoke about two hours after police unions in Massachusetts called on him to apologize . He did not apologize for his remark but repeated that he believed his choice of words was unfortunate . He reiterated his assertion that he believes police overreacted , but said Gates `` probably overreacted as well . '' `` My sense is you have