Gov. Jan Brewer was seen pointing her finger at President Barack Obama
during what seemed to be an intense conversation on the tarmac in Phoenix. The conversation concluded when Obama walked
away. They were discussing Brewer’s
published account of a previous meeting the two had at the White House in June.
Obama was visiting Arizona for his post-State of the Union tour. Brewer was there to greet Obama in addition
to other politicians. Obama received a
letter from Brewer which was nothing more than an invitation to discuss Arizona’s
economic “comeback” and a tour of the US Mexican border.
According to a White House aide, the president told Brewer he would be
happy to accept the invitation. He also
told her that he believed her published account of their previous meeting in
the Oval Office was inaccurate.
In Brewer’s book, Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special
Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure the Border,
Brewers detailed the discuss she had with Obama in regards to the state’s
illegal immigration challenges. Throughout
the book Obama is depicted as “condescending,” and “patronizing.” “He didn’t feel that I had treated him
cordially” in the book said Brewer to reporters on Wednesday. “I said to him that I have all the respect in
the world for the office of the president.
The book is what the book is. I
asked him if he read the book. He said
he read the excerpt.”
In an excerpt provided by Amazon, Brewer defends her state’s Senate
Bill 1070 immigration law signed in 2010 although it was overturned. She writes, “[Obama] has repeatedly made fun
of those of us who want to see the law enforced, saying we want a ‘moat’ with ‘alligators’
in it around our country. The reason he
has resorted to these failed attempts at humor, I think, is that he supports a
policy that is fundamentally undemocratic, and he knows it.”
During a later interview on Thursday, Brewer stated that she thought of
Obama as “thin-skinned” in regards to their disagreements over the book and
policy differences.
The Arizona Governor says that she did not mean any disrespect and does
not recall wagging her finger at the president.
The brief conversation between Brewer and the President demonstrated the
constant debate that has been regularly occurring between the two. Although
Brewer was able to rally some support from callers during talk shows, the rest
of the state is said to be shaking their heads.
The State’s largest newspaper, The Arizona Republic, has said that
Brewer scolding the President “now pretty much defines this state’s
relationship with Washington, D.C., to the world.”
