Iowa – President Obama got into a heated back-and-forth Monday with a Tea Party activist who demanded to know at the end of a town hall meeting here whether Vice President Biden had called Tea Partiers “terrorists” during the debt ceiling debate on Capitol Hill.
In public, Obama did not directly answer the question from Iowa Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes about Biden. But Obama fired back that he knows better than anyone what it’s like to be slammed for his political views and was not about to accept a lecture on the topic.
“Now, in fairness, since I’ve been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric,” Obama said.
Obama did say he would discuss the matter further with Rhodes, founder of the Iowa Tea Party, after the event. And the duo was spotted in an animated conversation a few moments later.
In an interview later with Fox News, Rhodes claimed that the president had insisted that Biden had not made the original comment.
“He just denied it. He said the vice president didn’t make any of those assertions,” Rhodes said. “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally — all over the place — then how can you have a conversation?”
Rhodes added that Obama brushed him aside. “Then he said, ‘We can’t have a conversation because you’re saying I called you a terrorist,’” recalled Rhodes. “The fact is it demonstrates the deep divide that he is unwilling to negotiate without going after the other side. The whole day was about going after Republicans and talking about how unreasonable they are.”
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4 Responses
Well- did he or didn’t he say it?
Please edit to add: Does Obama agree with that statement? Just curious.
“Now, in fairness, since I’ve been called a socialist who wasn’t born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I’m all for lowering the rhetoric, This statement the president does NOT deny, but Biden calling the Tea party terrorist he denies, how strange. Guess then it must be true
It was actually a very civil discussion, one that the uber left needs to teach their minions about having. There was no shouting, just a level headed conversation between a few people and BHO.