Obama annoyed with Texas Lt. Gov. at race discussion

Obama reminded Patrick that he has spoken out against those who would harm police officers several times. Most recently, he did Wednesday after meeting with police, activists and community leaders for four hours at the White House about tension between law enforcement and minority communities.

Displaying some annoyance, Obama told Patrick that he has done so repeatedly.

“Let me first of all say that I have been unequivocal in condemning any rhetoric directed at police officers,” Obama replied. “You’d have to find any message that did not include a very strong support for law enforcement in all my utterances dating back to Ferguson.”

“I’ll be happy to send it to you in case you missed it,” Obama retorted, referring to all his past comments on the subject.

“Words matter,” Patrick told Obama. “I would ask you to consider being careful when there is an incident of not being too quick to condemn the police without due process and until the facts are known. I know that’s not your intention, but again, words have meaning.”

The usually very relaxed Obama tersely replied: “I’m aware that my words matter deeply here. The data shows that there are disparities in terms of how persons of color and whites are treated in the aggregate.”

Obama added that peacefully protesting clear incidents of police brutality is not anti-law enforcement.

Elected officials must “make sure that we don’t pretend as if there aren’t potential problems in how police in certain communities interact, and that when we raise those issues or people raise those issues, that the perception is somehow that that’s anti-police,” he said.

“However, the protesters have to be peaceful; it’s counterproductive if you’re not,” Obama said, repeating a point he made in Dallas on Tuesday when spoke at the memorial for the slain police.