OK, how do YOU interpret these remarks.
To tell you the truth, I took "all these problems" to mean the problems with terrorism. I never saw any way to connect that to black people, and the belief that Lott was endorsing segregation still seems to me to be an unsupportable stretch. (But don't get me wrong: under any circumstances it was a moronic comment.)
Whether I'm right or not, Lott could probably have deflected this by unloading both indignant barrels in response, but instead he opted for the Jimmy Swaggart option, pleading guilty to the charge. At that point, his fate was sealed. There's no defending a man who won't defend himself.
Actually, he first tried to say he meant Strom's 1948 Dixiecrat positions on defense and the budget - even though the Dixiecrat platform didn't even mention those issues. So IMO that is the key point - he basically lied to defend his remarks.