The White House today attempted to distance President Obama from remarks by House leaders that town hall disrupters are “un-American,” saying that the president believes “spirited debate” is part of the “American tradition.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, when asked about the op-ed written by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said:
Well, I think there’s actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America. The President thinks that if people want to come and have a spirited debate about health care, a real vigorous conversation about it, that’s a part of the American tradition and he encourages that….
And so if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the President thinks that’s important. Now, if you just want to come to a town hall so that you can disrupt and so that you can scream over another person, he doesn’t think that that’s productive. And as a country, we’ve been able to make progress when people actually talk out what our problems are, not try to shout each other down.
The president also seemed to address this when speaking at a press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“We are having a vigorous debate in the United States and I think that’s a healthy thing,” he said.
