OPINION:
President Obama, interrupted by a heckler at a gay rights speech, dropped his pretense that the White House is “The People’s House.” Instead, he told the transgender woman, “You’re in MY house.”
Obama was talking about same-sex marriage in a speech in the East Room when he was interrupted. And this time, Obama wasn’t patient, made no show of listening to the complainant as he often does.
“Hold on a sec,” Obama said. “OK. You know what. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.
“Hey, listen, you’re in my house,” he added, to cheers from the audience. “And you don’t start, you don’t start, no, no. Put him out. It’s, it’s. it’s not, you know what, it’s — it’s respectful when you get invited to somebody —”
The heckler chimed up again then, saying something unintelligible, and Obama got a sour look on his face.
“You’re not, you’re not, you’re not going to get, you’re not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this,” he said. The crowd booed the man as Obama said several times, “I’m sorry.”
“No, shame on ya’,” the president said loudly. “You shouldn’t be doing this.” But the heckler kept heckling (NPR reported that “Familia: TQLM, an immigration advocacy group, identified the heckler as Jennicet Gutiérrez, a transgender woman who is in the country illegally. The group said Gutiérrez called on Obama to ’release all LGBTQ immigrants from detention and stop all deportations.’ “).
“Can we ask for this person out?” Obama said as the crowd chanted “OBAMA!”
“You can either stay and be quiet, or we’ll have to take you out. Can we have this person removed please? C’mon, c’mon, no, nope.
After the heckler was escorted out, Obama said, “As a general rule, I am just fine with a few hecklers, but not when I’m up in the house, you know what I mean?” Joe Biden, who had stood mutely by throughout the disturbance, leaned in to give Obama that Uncle Joe should rub.
Because my attitude is if your eating the hor d’oeuvres—you know what I’m saying —and drinking the booze, I know that’s right. Anyway, where was I?”
Someone in the crowd yelled, “We love you!” “I love you back,” Obama said in HIS house.
Watch the whole episode here.
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