President Obama Takes Down A Heckler Who Tried To Disrespect Him In The White House

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President Obama wasted no time taking down a heckler who tried to disrespect him during an event at the White House.

Video:

Transcript via The White House:

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, hold on a second.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible), President Obama!

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, you know what — no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: President Obama —

THE PRESIDENT: Hey —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, you’re in my house. (Laughter and applause.) You don’t — come on. It’s not — you know what, it’s not respectful when you get invited to somebody —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: President Obama (inaudible).

THE PRESIDENT: You’re not going to — you’re not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: President Obama —

THE PRESIDENT: I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

AUDIENCE: Booo —

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no, no. No, no. No. Shame on you. You shouldn’t be doing this.

AUDIENCE: Obama! Obama! Obama!

THE PRESIDENT: Can we escort this person out? Come on.

You can either stay and be quiet, or we’ll have to take you out. All right, can we have this person removed, please?

THE PRESIDENT: Come on.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: President Obama —

THE PRESIDENT: Come on. Come on. Nope. No. Come on. Come on, guys. I’m just going to wait until we get this done.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible) deportations! No more deportations!

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, where was I? (Laughter and applause.) So as a general rule, I am just fine with a few hecklers — (laughter) — but not when I’m up in the house. (Applause.) You know what I mean? You know, my attitude is if you’re eating the hors d’oeuvres — (laughter) — you know what I’m saying?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I do.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. And drinking the booze. I know that’s right.

President Obama has demonstrated incredible patience with hecklers throughout his presidency, but to come to the White House and disrespect the President is a different story.

The event that the President was hosting was an LGBT Pride Month reception to disrupt this event with a protest on an unrelated issue was disrespectful of the LGBT community.

Obama was also correct. The people attending that event were invited by the White House. This was not an open to the public gathering. It is a different story if hecklers want to protest at a public event, but not at the White House.

The heckling of Obama was especially unfair because this President has tried to do more for undocumented immigrants through his executive actions than any other political leader in the country. The was uncivil, inappropriate, and deserving of the President’s scorn.

It’s not too much to ask for people to have a little bit of respect for the man and the office.

Jason Easley

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