Obama ‘apology tour’ ridiculed by House Republican on floor

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) used a floor speech Thursday to rattle off a list of apologies he said President Obama has issued since entering office.

Gohmert produced an oversized chart of not only Obama's apologies over the past three years, but also issues and events Gohmert thought more deserving of the president's time.

"I thought, maybe it would be helpful to track exactly what deserves apology and what doesn't," the conservative lawmaker, known for colorful floor rhetoric, said in his speech.

Marker in hand, the Texas representative then went down his list, marking off each event as either worthy of Obama's apology or not.

His first check mark went to what he called Obama's "apology tour" to countries around the world when he first took office. He said Obama apologized for CIA enhanced interrogation methods, for detainees at Guantanamo Bay and for the accidental burning of Qurans at a military base in Afghanistan last month.

He suggested that Obama has not apologized to the families of the soldiers killed in the wake of violence after those burnings. He also accused the president of neglecting to apologize to the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose death was linked to the failed "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program.

Gohmert listed two apologies he thought Obama should have made to Israel, including for remarks French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Obama were overheard uttering before an open mic about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a G20 summit in 2011.

Gohmert also accused Obama of apologizing to Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who testified to House Democrats in favor of Obama’s contraception mandate in the healthcare law.

Conservatives argue the mandate violates religious freedom by forcing employers to provide contraception to employees against their moral beliefs, but Fluke became well-known after conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” for wanting people to pay for her contraception.

Limbaugh has apologized for the remarks and taken heat from advertisers. Obama called Fluke last week to offer support and to say, according to Fluke, that her parents should be proud of her.

Gohmert labeled the call to Fluke another apology by Obama, and criticized the president for not apologizing to those offended by the contraception mandate.

“It struck me that the president recently found time to apologize to someone who’d been up here on the Hill testifying, but he never found time to apologize to those who he told you cannot practice your religious beliefs,” Gohmert said.

“Comments made by Rush Limbaugh and his radio program about pro-abortion activist and Georgetown law student Sandra, and I’m told it’s Fluck, Fluke — whatever,” Gohmert said. “Yes, found time for that apology.”

http://thehill.com/video/house/215103-obama-apology-tour-ridiculed-by-house-republican-in-floor-speech

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