A major labor union leader, Teamsters president James Hoffa, is not backing down from comments he made shortly before President Barack Obama’s Labor Day speech that called on union workers to “take these sons of bitches out,” referring to members of the Tea Party and Republicans. Hoffa tells Talking Points Memo that he has “no regrets” about his remarks yesterday in Detroit at the Obama event.
ABC’s Jake Tapper pressed White House press secretary Jay Carney on whether Hoffa’s remarks were appropriate, particularly given the fact that Obama himself urged the country to “make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds” after the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last January.
“Well, first of all, those weren’t comments by the President,” Carney replied. “I understand that there is a ritual in Washington that somebody says something and you link the associations, and then everybody who has an association with him or her somehow has to avow or disavow it. The president wasn’t there. I mean, he wasn’t on stage. He didn’t speak for another twenty minutes. He didn’t hear it. I really don’t have any comment beyond that, Jake.”
Watch the full video below, in which Tapper reminds Carney of a similar situation during the 2008 campaign involving John McCain:
Allahpundit at Hot Air highlights the glaring double standard when it comes to “inflammatory” political speech:
Rick Berman, the executive director of the pro-market Center for Union Facts, says in a statement that Hoffa’s union, the Teamsters, has had a violent history and the threat shouldn’t be taken lightly. Berman also points out that its unsurprising the White House has not condemned Hoffa for what he said. “It’s not surprising that President Obama and other Democratic Party officials would refuse to condemn Hoffa’s threats,” Berman said. “The Teamsters have donated $18.5 million to Democrats federally, and another $14.9 million at the state level.”
The Center for Union Facts has documented recent examples of Teamsters corruption, which includes a lengthy list of embezzlement charges, guilty pleas, and convictions for high-level Teamsters officials.
