President Barack Obama was heckled from an unusual source during his immigration speech on Monday — a man among the group of people hand-selected to stand right behind POTUS on stage. But Obama was clearly upset, berating the heckler during his speech.
During his speech at the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center in San Francisco, the President was interrupted by a young man shouting about how families were being split up by deportation. He called on Obama to stop the deportations.
“Mr. President, please use your executive order to halt deportation…” the young man yelled. “We agree that we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform. At the same time, you have a power to stop deportation…”
“Actually, I don’t,” Obama snapped in response.
Some members of the crowd tried unsuccessfully to block the man’s outburst by chanting “Obama! Obama!” as the President attempted to ignore the interruption and keep going. But the heckler continued, shouting “Stop deportation! Stop deportation!” Members of the security team moved in to remove the heckler, but POTUS told them to let him stay.
After expressing his understanding of the young man’s passion, Obama then unleashed on him, turning to face the audience behind him.
The President condescendingly explained that if he could bypass Congress to achieve immigration reform, he would, but stressed that the United States is “a nation of laws.”
“And so, the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws,” he criticized. “And what I’m proposing is the harder path, which is to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve.”
“But it won’t be as easy as just shouting,” he chastised.
Watch the interaction below:
