Republican shouts ‘you lie’ at Obama during speech

David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
Raw Story
Thursday, Sept 10th, 2009

The South Carolina Republican who yelled “You lie!” at President Barack Obama during the president’s speech on health care Wednesday night has issued an apology, CNN’s Political Ticker reports.

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” Joe Wilson (R-SC) stated. “While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

However, Wilson’s apology wasn’t quite fast enough to stop his rival in next year’s election from almost immediately cashing in on the controversy, as Michael Roston reports on his True/Slant blog.

As of press time at 11 pm ET, Democratic challenger Rob Miller had raised $8,600 online for his campaign, under the title “Defeating the man who yelled liar at Obama: Goodbye Rep. Joe Wilson.”

ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW

President Barack Obama was heckled during his speech to Congress Wednesday.

In his address on health care to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, the president said: “There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”

That was met with a chorus of boos from some Republican congresspeople. As the booing died down, a voice could be heard yelling out “You lie!”

The president stopped momentarily, glanced in the direction of the noise, and continued with the speech.

CNN initially reported that the person who yelled out was Rep. Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina. Glenn Thrush at Politico confirmed this.

In an interview with CNN moments after the speech, Sen. John McCain said the heckle was “totally disrespectful. [There's] no place for it in that setting or any other setting, and he should apologize immediately.”

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