Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm
During President Obama’s speech tonight to a joint session of Congress, GOP Rep. Joe Wilson called Obama a liar when the president said that illegal immigrants aren’t covered in the healthcare bill. This led MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to tweet that anybody who calls the president a liar is a dumbass who should show the president respect.
Wilson’s outburst was triggered by Obama saying, “There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
In response to Wilson’s inappropriate claim that Obama is a liar, the conservative Scarborough tweeted, “Whoever shouted out that the president was lying is a dumbass who should show the President respect. I hated when Democrats shouted at Bush.”
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It should be noted that Rep. Joe Wilson was one of the Republicans who helped the spread the death panel claim, and he is definitely on the right wing fringe. On CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has already called on Wilson to apologize. McCain called his outburst, “totally disrespectful” and said he should apologize. McCain also said there was “no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately.”
Just when you thought that the Republicans could not come up with another way to embarrass themselves, along comes Joe Wilson. The last thing that the Republicans needed tonight was some right winger disrespecting the president and the etiquette of the Congress. I can guarantee you that the big news on the GOP end of this story tomorrow, will Joe Wilson, not the GOP rebuttal to Obama’s speech.
Scarborough has it right. Wilson is a dumbass. He is so stupid that he didn’t realize that his outburst only hurts his own party, not Barack Obama. However, this incident is symptomatic of the problems that ill the current GOP. The wing nuts have taken over, and they are going to continue to alienate and embarrass the party every chance that they get.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
