Jan Brewer and Barack Obama in Heated Exchange on Runway [Video]
When Jan Brewer greeted Barack Obama at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Wednesday, she probably wasn’t expecting a dressing-down from the President as she still stood on the runway tarmac.
Yet that’s exactly what Brewer got, with Obama taking the Arizona Republican governor to task over an extract from her November 2011 book, Scorpions for Breakfast. In the memoir, Brewer discusses how she handled SB 1070 and its after effects, and accuses Obama of deliberately mischaracterizing the immigration law. She also recounts a sharp exchange during an Oval Office meeting with Obama.
The two were spotted by reporters exchanging tense words, with Brewer at one point jabbing her finger in Obama’s direction. Reporters close to the conversation said both talked over each other at points, and revealed that Obama ended the conversation by walking away from Brewer while the governor was in mid-sentence. According to Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson:
“The president clearly was unhappy with the way he was characterized in her book. She was gracious but didn’t back down from the president when he voiced her displeasure with her.”
A slightly flustered Brewer later revealed that Obama said he hadn’t read her whole book, but an excerpt. She told one pool reporter:
“[I have] all the respect in the world for the office of the president. I thought we probably would’ve talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another. Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around,” Brewer said. “I know again that he loves this country and I love this country.”
This video isn’t the most exposing footage – basically all of the juicy action takes place behind a presidential limo – but it’s basically the most revealing clip anybody shot:
