Obama takes heat from Tea Partiers at Iowa town hall

President Obama got a little dose of Tea Party town hall anger on Monday during his three-day tour of the Midwest.

At a town hall event in Decorah, Iowa, local Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes stood up and shouted a question at the president regarding reports that Vice President Joe Biden had called the members of the Tea Party "terrorists," USA Today reports. Rhodes questioned how the president can talk about civility when Biden was accused of using that kind of rhetoric.

After taking a question from another town hall attendee, Mr. Obama said he agrees that everyone should tone down their political rhetoric.

"Now, in fairness, since I've been called a socialist who wasn't born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I'm all for lowering the rhetoric," he said.

Earlier this month, Biden told CBS News that published reports that he compared Tea Party-linked lawmakers to "terrorists" were "absolutely not true." Instead, the vice president explained, "What happened was there were some people who said they felt like they were being held hostage by terrorists. I never said that they were terrorists or weren't terrorists, I just let them vent."

Though Mr. Obama addressed the question during the town hall, Rhodes and another critical town hall attendee pressed the president on the issue after the event.

"When you're talking about civility, how is your vice president calling us terrorists?" Rhodes asked.

Referring to the debt ceiling debate, Mr. Obama responded, "For us to be willing to take the economy to the brink was irresponsible."

A woman next to Rhodes reminded the president that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano once warned that right-wing extremists should be monitored. Mr. Obama responded, "That's true, Timothy McVeigh should be -- you would agree with that."

After a bit more back-and-forth, the president told Rhodes, "It doesn't sound like you are interested in listening," and continued shaking hands with other Iowans in attendance.

The president hit the road this week to talk with voters about reviving the economy. As unemployment continues to hover around 9 percent, the president's poll numbers have dropped recently, and Republican presidential candidates are ratcheting up their political attacks against him.

During his two stops yesterday, Mr. Obama pointed to a number of initiatives he has proposed to create jobs and spur economic growth - including renewing payroll tax cuts, building up infrastructure programs and giving tax breaks to companies that are hiring veterans - but said "Congress needs to move."

[radsenior]

What is most treasonous is the blatant lying the TEA party-ers are in this confrontational election cycle! It matters little if one person believe Biden is right or wrong, the issue is two TEA party Yahoos confronting the President of the United States in such a manner. Here's yet another example of the bigoted and confrontational maneuvering the TEA party is espousing for maximum exposure. This video and words will find their way to the internet and presented to provide the president as wrong or the TEA party as GOD sanctioned! TEA members are terrorist when it comes to holding the credit worthiness of the USA hostage while they ramp up distrust world-wide! The TEA party have employed the "Scorched earth" tactic to try to make president Obama a one-term president. They are willing to take the USA down even at their own expense! Their tactics have garnered world-wide exposure and the gullible have swallowed it hook-line-and-sinker! The prejudiced and bigoted Sen. Mitch McConnell, the bigoted Republican from Kentucky, the minority leader with the greatest cunning and sharpest knife, signaled his party's true purpose last year when he proclaimed: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Every candidate is a clone of the others save one who celebrated Elvis' birthday! The sad result is the defunct GOP as the TEA party has subverted any sanity and taken the once proud GOP to the fringe of lunacy! The GOP is not relevant anymore!

[noloyalisti]

You never see the fat, pasty white guys from the Tea Bag at the same time as the KKK. Mmmmmmmmm...

[noloyalisti]

Let's keep the Wisconsin momentum going into 2012 and throw out the Billionaire Corporate moles (Tea Bag Republcions) who invaded our government.

[dantom39]

The media will not ask anything but fluff being in the bathtub with dems and Obama.

[noloyalisti]

These are representatives of the billionaires club of America who want to privatize everything for their own greedy profit. What a bunch of evil ignorant fools are these Tea Baggers.

[formrusmcsgt]

by writious_prose August 16, 2011 9:08 PM EDT
all of it...did you not read the previous article re: the new high end security buses purchased for the event by secret service along with the three day trip is labled "offical" thus we, the tax payers shall be picking up the tab in full.
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Buses have been rented, retrofitted, and then "un" retrofitted again for some time. Purchasing a couple is cheaper than converting and unconverting rented buses each time.

But you don't apper to be interested in the facts or you would have informed yourself before showing all that you hadn't.....

[formrusmcsgt]

dubya only showed at staged or supported events.

He never had the guts to address non-partisan functions.

[friendman2]

Couldn't these tea baggers wear a white hood with a white robe.

[tuathadedannan]

Good job on toning down that rhetoric!

[vanwahlgren]

Good Point. this is not a protest, but rather just trying to disrupt the confrence..

Maybe there will be some democrats with enough guts to try to disrupt the tea party's appearances.. They need a taste of their own medicine to show how unpopular the tea party support for tax cuts for Koch brothers goes.

[Nene61]

Those Tea Party IDIOTS(activists) should have been escorted out of there by SS or else kicked out of there...

[moretruthnow]

They would have been marched out and arrested if that was Bush. I'm glad the President handled it the way he did. He is a good person and he is always going to be fair and honest to everyone. But if they are hard headed with Faux Noise lies there is nothing he or any one with the facts could do.

[moretruthnow]

We Democrats aren't socialists. We just care about more than our selfish selves. Your hate, your disgusting posting name is why you are as sorry as the most hateful liars in the tea party.

[scubawithdogs]

Whiinning! you called me a name. That's all you have to complain about? get a life.

[remant]

I would like to know just how much of the tab for this campaign swing into states whose media has recently been dominated by Republicans the taxpayers are picking up.

[catmomtx]

The same amount that they have paid for all the other Presidents that sought reelection. It isn't as if President Obama is the only President to ever campaign for a second term, right?

[forsanity1]

The taxpayers pay the POTUS to do his job. His job includes meeting directly with the people he serves.

This is true of all presidents. Why wasn't this sort of trip a problem before 1-20-09? Could it be all about WHO the president is and not what he does?

The NYT has an excellent article that proves the tea party types are just the reborn religious right from over fifty years of American intolerance. Two Notre Dame researchers did a four year study.