Georgia Rep. Paul Broun and constituents share laugh about shooting Obama
* February 25th, 2011 11:33 am ET
At a recent town hall meeting in Athens, Georgia, Rep. Paul Broun and constituents shared a joke about shooting President Barack Obama. When an unidentified person in the audience asked Broun "Who is going to shoot Obama?" the audience responded with laughter. Rather than condemning the disturbing question, Broun simply responded by condemning President Obama, and in so doing gave what some see as tacit approval to the question, and the laughter.
When asked, "Who is going to shoot Obama?" Broun replied:
"The thing is, I know there's a lot of frustration with this president. We're going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we'll elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare."
One would think, and hope, after the tragedy in Tucson, Broun, and his constituents, would exercise a little more civility, and sensitivity.
Greg Sargent at the Washington Post reports:
One group who took this seriously is the Secret Service. According to Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, the situation has been looked into.
"We're aware of the incident and the appropriate steps were taken," Donovan told me. "At this point it's a closed matter."
A law enforcement source confirmed that the Secret Service interviewed the constituent and determined that he or she was an "elderly person" who now regrets making a bad joke.
"In this case this was poor taste," the source says. "The person realized that."
Poor taste indeed. Joking about threats to the life of the President of the United States, regardless of party, is always a bad idea.
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