President Barack Obama on Thursday downplayed his tarmac tiff with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, saying that media coverage has blown the tense moment out of proportion.
?This is not a big deal,? Obama said in an interview with ABC News?s Diane Sawyer. Brewer, a Republican, greeted the president as he landed in Arizona on Wednesday and the two appeared to have a brief, strained conversation.
Continue ReadingThe brief to-do was all over network and cable news Thursday, and was the subject of the first question White House press secretary Jay Carney got from reporters traveling with the president ? all distracting from the White House?s efforts to draw attention to the proposals for economic growth that Obama is rolling out in his post-State of the Union trip to five states this week.
Obama said he thought Brewer may have been seeking out media attention. ?It?s always good publicity for a Republican if they?re in an argument with me,? he said. ?I think this is a classic example of things getting blown out of proportion.?
After the conversation, Brewer told reporters that Obama had indicated he was ?a little disturbed? by her description of an Oval Office meeting they?d had in her book, ?Scorpions for Breakfast.?
Brewer?s response, she told POLITICO?s Carrie Budoff Brown, who was the pool reporter that day, was that she has ?all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is.? She also gave Obama a handwritten note asking him to visit Arizona again so that the two could meet.
Obama said ?he didn?t feel that I had treated him cordially? in the book, Brewer recalled. ?I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn?t get my sentence finished. Anyway, we?re glad he?s here. I?ll regroup.?
In a gaggle aboard Air Force One on Thursday afternoon, Carney offered his own readout of the conversation, saying that Obama had noted to Brewer that her book had gotten ?a lot of attention? when it came out and that ?their last meeting, which was very cordial, was reported differently in her book.?
Carney also echoed the president?s words, saying that the incident has been ?overblown? and is ?not a very big deal at all.?
?I really assume you guys have more important issues to cover than this,? he added.
frank gore injury frank gore injury makana makana gloria cain gloria cain kandi burruss
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.