Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), who yelled out “baby killer” during the debate on health care Sunday night, said that he apologized to Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), making it clear that he did not intend to attack Stupak personally. But he stands by the substance of his attack on the health care bill, saying he represented the people of his district, as expressed in the town hall meetings from last summer.
“I called Congressman Stupak today, and I said, I just want you to know that my remarks were not directed to you personally, that they were about the policy that was unfolding,” said Neugebauer, in an interview excerpt aired on CNN. “I said I was very disappointed in the vote where we had a government takeover of health care, and I was particularly disturbed with the fact that we were somehow brokering a deal with the White House where we put the lives of unborn children in jeopardy. And I just told him, I was speaking passionately. Some people thought I was directing those remarks at him. And I wanted him to be assured that I was not directing those remarks at him.”
“I’m just trying to represent the people of the 19th Congressional District,” Neugebauer also said. “And I have heard from them over and over again, and I saw them in town hall meetings all across the 19th Congressional District last summer. Where we used to have a hundred people, we had a thousand people. And the cards, the letters, the phone calls, when we do tele-town hall meetings. I mean, the intensity of the American people, I think was represented in my intensity last night, in the passion that I had. It’s just the same passion that they have.”
He added: “I did believe, and still believe, that that Senate bill is a baby-killing bill. And I don’t like the language in that bill, it puts taxpayers I think in many ways funding abortions in this country. And even if you’re pro-choice or pro-life, I don’t think that many Americans think that their tax dollars should be going to fund abortions.”
Here’s the video:
