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Congressman Defends Outrageous Giuliani Remarks: Obama ‘Views America Differently’

CREDIT: CNN
CREDIT: CNN

Days after former New York City Mayor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani questioned whether President Obama really loves America, prominent voices within his party continue to rush to his defense.

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told host Gloria Borger that while he disagreed with Giuliani’s language, he agreed with his general point. Issa likened the former mayor’s remarks to the less-than-artful comments Vice President Biden has made in the past, saying that “If we wanted get on top of the vice president every time he says something flip and foolish or vulgar, we could have this discussion every Sunday.”

“The Vice President may very well be clumsy, but these remarks were hateful,” Borger pointed out. But Issa stood by his argument, telling her, “The reality is that I do believe that the president believes strongly in America, I just think he views America differently.”

His evidence, Issa explained, was that Obama “denounced the U.S. Supreme Court in the halls of Congress during the State of the Union for their decision” in the Citizens United case, and thus, “we have a president who doesn’t believe the Supreme Court is supreme.”

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While Issa suggests that the president’s comments in his 2010 State of the Union address that the ruling “reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections,” was an attack on the separation of powers, he himself complained that same year that the high court has been “legislating from the bench,” when it ruled in 2007 that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

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On Friday, Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) said the he does not “really know” whether the president loves America and on Saturday he added that also doesn’t know whether President Obama is really a Christian.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) released a statement agreeing with the “gist” of Giuliani’s attacks on Thursday and reportedly called the former mayor on Friday to congratulate him on them.