We may never know exactly what President Obama said to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) during his trip to the state on Wednesday, but it’s clear things didn’t go well.
What was supposed to be a trip focusing on jobs and innovation a day after the State of the Union instead became a story about finger pointing and who said what to whom during a brief exchange on an airport tarmac.
“In my opinion it was a terrible encounter,” Brewer told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren a few hours later. But in a way, it was also a victory for the governor and the latest in a series of moves by President Obama that may have unintentionally elevated the Republican to a national figure.
Four years ago, Brewer was relatively unknown to most of the nation. As Arizona’s secretary of state, she was the No. 2 elected official there.
But when Obama headed to the White House in 2009 following his historic election, he tapped Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano to become homeland security secretary. Napolitano was a natural choice, but her move was also a promotion for Brewer, who automatically became governor on Jan. 21, 2009.
From there, things got better for Brewer. Napolitano had managed to ward off versions of Arizona’s harsh immigration law for years, but with Brewer in the executive’s chair a year later, the politically popular bill became a reality.
The law made Brewer a national lightning rod and a favorite of conservatives. That reputation was emboldened when the president publicly criticized her and his Justice Department sued to block the law.
So on Wednesday, when reporters spotted her pointing a finger at the president and appearing to be flustered after Obama walked away, the governor was well positioned to get her side of the story out quickly.
Brewer said she was there to welcome the president and tell him about what she calls the “Arizona comeback,” her plan to turn around the state’s lagging economy. But the conversation somehow turned to the governor’s book, which was published in November. At some moments during her interviews, Brewer said that the president was the first one to bring up the book. At other points, she said she was the one to ask him about it.
“I asked him if he had read my book, ‘Scorpions for Breakfast.’ And he said that he read an excerpt and he didn’t think that I was very cordial,” Brewer told a conservative radio talk show host in Phoenix. “He was somewhat thin skinned and a little tense to say the least.”
In interview after interview, Brewer used similar language, mocking the president as “thin skinned” and “angry” because he criticized her book. She said Obama walked away from her while she was in mid-sentence. But the governor also made it clear she was caught by surprise at the exchange.
“I was so taken aback by it all. I was trying to be very gracious and listen to him,” Brewer told the host on Phoenix’s KFYI radio station. “I was shocked by his sternness of it all.”
The confrontation just elevated Brewer’s profile even more, while moving the spotlight off the president’s jobs trip and onto her.
Judging by available sales figures, it was also a huge boost for her book, which was written with the help of conservative Jessica Gavora. A short time after the confrontation, Brewer’s “Scorpions for Breakfast” was ranked at 343,222 in Amazon’s book sales. By Thursday morning, it had rocketed to 169.
An anonymous administration official told a pool reporter on the trip that Obama did talk to the governor about the book. The conversation focused on a description of a June 2010 meeting Brewer and Obama had, at the president’s invitation, to discuss immigration.
“The president said he’d be glad to meet with her again,” the official said, “but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book.”
The description in question came from a particularly harsh passage in which Brewer called the president “condescending” and described a scene in which she sat silently for 10 minutes while he “proceeded to lecture” her. From Brewer’s book, emphasis hers:
It wasn’t long before I realized I was hearing the president’s stump speech. Only I was was supposed to listen without talking. Did he care to hear the review from the actual scene at the border? Did the opinions and observations of the people of Arizona mean anything to him? I didn’t think so. His mind seemed made up. If he knew about the escalating levels of violence, the kidnappings, the drop houses, the home invasions, the spotters, and the drug mules, he didn’t give any indication. It was as though President Obama thought he would lecture me and I would learn at his knee. He was patronizing. He understood that we were “frustrated,” he said — yes, we were frustrated! — but he didn’t seem interested in knowing why. Then it dawned on me. He’s treating me like the cop he had over for a beer after he bad-mouthed the Cambridge police, I thought. He thinks he can humor me and then get rid of me.
It was a totally different picture than Brewer had painted publicly immediately after the meeting. At the time, the governor described the meeting as “very cordial” despite some disagreements with the president.
On Wednesday, Brewer was asked by the hosts of KTAR, another Phoenix radio station, whether she thought her actions toward Obama were disrespectful.
“I would never disrespect a president. I certainly wouldn’t disrespect the office of the president,” she said.
But she conceded she was a little unclear about what exactly happened in the heat of the exchange.
“I tried not to be angry,” she said. “It’s always hard to look back and see if you were angry. I was trying to make a point that I thought my book was right and correct.”
Nick R. Martin
Nick Martin is a reporter for TPMMuckraker. He comes to the site from Arizona, where he worked as a freelance journalist, investigating serial killers, extremist groups, politicians and scoundrels of all stripes for a variety of local and national news outlets. He also operated the award-winning news blog, Heat City.
Geezus Nick. Really?
President Obama has yet to show any real anger, other than the talks during the debt ceiling. She wants us to believe she had the power to get him upset over a stupid book she wrote? This woman is nothing but trailer trash, which makes her a hero with the teabaggers.
well, actually yes, we do know exactly what was said in the exchange because there were two witnesses who've now told us in detail. Yet another pathetic attempt to make more of this than there ever really was.
Gerta Von Slutstain, oh please.
Teabaggers were masturbating heaps at that photo. Now, they say, if we could just get a governor to burn a cross.
Oh please. She did what she set out to do; take the positive focus off the president's trip and boost sales of her book.
Nick swallowed the Republican Kool-Aid.
kyle_sullivan I agree, Nick's got to be kidding with this comical article.
Photo appears to show the profile of the Wicked Witch of the Southwest.
This is the second time, as far as I know, that Obama and Brewer have met, at it's the second time she's lied about what happened at the meeting.
Brewer no longer deserves the presumption of credibility. If I were Obama, I wouldn't meet with her again.
.
MuParadigm OH, you were there? And heard the exchanges? That explains how you can say it's Brewer who's lying and not the Incompetent In Chief. Well, that's certainly a load off my mind.
@dansowie @MuParadigm reguardless of her feelings, her attitude was completely
direspectful of the office of the President.
dansowieMuParadigm Well, 'incompetent in chief' says it all about you and lack of objectivity, sansowie. Your comments can't be taken seriously, way too emotionally biased and hateful towards the president, on a Lib blog no less.
dansowie And you're ignoring the two people who were there and who disagree with Brewer's characterization of what happened. Of course, you'd missed that because Fox wouldn't inform you of it.
Agreed, O need never meet with this woman agaain or at leaast have some third or fourth party witnesses around, if he must. She's a typical lying neocon, like the rest of her deceptive breed..
I'm not an Obama supporter, but I think she's just trying to make things more juicy to boost sales.
Keely Danielle oh please, don't put "Jan" and "juicy" in the same sentence together.
She's unfit for public office, in my view. The tragedy is that she has so much company in other elected positions throughout the country; where the electorate has been duped into electing self-serving megalomaniacs.
gilead How you can say SHE'S unfit for office and not the economically illiterate, lying buffoon who currently occupies the White House is beyond me. Unbelievable!
'Ecomically illiterate, lying buffoon' tsk tsk, you just keep proving your lack of objectivity. How can any of your comments on this be credible when you show suh over the top hate and bias towards the president. Pathetic and YOU'RE unbelievable if you think we're buying this crap line!!
dansowie You're just making stuff up. How is Obama economically illiterate? When has he lied? You might consider that assertion is not the same as fact. You also might reconsidering exposing your ignorance. Of course, some people enjoy watching you but you really do look foolish and being the object of amusement by those better informed than you isn't exactly a life-affirming situation. Better to stay quiet so no one notices the dumb oozing from your comments.
She's promoting her stupid book and made sure that this free photo-op was well covered. It doesn't matter, she's toast.
SandyBerman as evidenced by her golden skin.
SandyBerman Dream on Sandyman. Her popularity is Arizona is over 50%. Oops.
She was on the tarmac at his invitation. It was an opportunity for her to show respect to the Office of the President. She blew it. Yes, Obama is at fault for thinking she understood the situation. Had he thought about it she would not have been invited as she may not in the future.
FreedToChoose Respect needs to be a two way street. If you don't give it, you don't deserve to get it in return. He has disrespected her since he stuck his nose into Arizona's business for doing his job for him.
How can her book be "right and correct" when she clearly contradicted herself, response immediately after the meeting and her book are totally different. So it's natural to assume she lied about tons of other stuff in the book, why would anyone purchase it? She's just an old ugly hag, inside and out.
she's an embarassment! Come to think of it, I don't know of any T bag republican that isn't.
OH..So it's Obama's fault that she is his enemy?!??!? What kind of title is that??? AND.. The author is using ALL right wing quotes to tell this story..Please!!!!!!!!!!! Sick of poor, so called 'journalism', like this article.
orsay
The title of the article may have been a little sensationalist, but the first part explains that the only reason anyone pays any attention to her at all, is that Obama chose Napolitano to serve in his cabinet.
As far as using all right wing quotes - to any intelligent person, their direct quotes just illustrate how completely assinine they are.
Huh; like Ms. Warm Leatherette didn't practice in front of a mirror the night before in anticipation of pulling this pantomime with the Prez for the press. This looked about as spontaneous as Newt's anger with John King over the “Marianne” question.
Wow - what a delusional, paranoid freak. You got whta you deserve, Arizona.
I'd like to ask for those who claim Bush was disrespected. What elected officials ever disrespected Bush?
Intervention please. The Betty Ford Clinic does wonders.
It's very easy for a dumb person to respond to a smart person's views as "condescending," because your ideology has made you a stupid creature. To be so delusional, you have to have only a fantasy life.
And then she was swept up by a dust devil and dropped into the Sea of Cortez.
Anyone who'e EVER interacted with Brewer personally knows she's a stammering idiot. This was an unprofessional moment by a less smart, less politically capable version of GWB. I'm certain she didn't plan this as a media stunt for political reasons, or book sales reasons. She just trotted out there, blurted out the first thing off the top of her head, and her political managers started to manage this for her personal (financial and political) benefit after the fact.
"I was trying to be very gracious and listen to him..."
Wagging your finger in someone's face is not how it's done, Janet. I make it a personal policy to walk away from idiots and people who generally are wasting my time. Obama seems to have a similar personal policy.
Gee, it's sounding more like it was Jan Brewer who is thin skinned. So she gets some Fox News time and gets to dis the President AND plug her book. I'm sure her agent considers that "winning"!
d.king7777 Her agent? Charlie Sheen.
If Republicans want to elevate Jan Brewer to a nationwide figure please be my guest. After that debate performance I want more people to see what a party of idiots the GOP has become.
VivaAmerica They elevated Palin in '08 and now any unqualified, uneducated RWNJ thinks they're qualified for any position in the very same gov't they repeatedly disparage. They sure do want their piece of this gov't,, especially the financial piece and all the benefits it includes.
Here's what went down:
Brewer: hey, welcome, did you read my book?
Obama: uh, yes I did and I'm confused by your account of what happened during our meeting because I thought it was professional and went well.
Obama said this in a very polite way as he tends to be a respectful and calm person especially towards women. But Brewer, being a RWNJ, just saw an uppity negro sassing her and forgot who she was talking to. She tried to defend herself because she also felt he was calling her a liar. "Now look here, she points, I'm not a liar I told the truth in that book". Pres.Obama, seeing that the situation was escalating, walked away. Brewer was "flustered" and now had to save face. She ran to anyone who would listen and tried to portray herself as someone who was "threatened" by the Big Black Kenyan with "thin skin". She learned that her book sales are going up and she is milking it for as long as possible.
The End.
OK new report shows that he didn't walk away and instead continued to talk with others that were present. So she didn't get the attention she wanted, got flustered and went running to the media.
From the picture, she's the one who looks like she's being disrespectful. Not that I'd expect civil behavior from that leather-faced harpy.
So Jan Brewer is a classless, braying imbecile. What else is new?
njblais57 Maybe the president walked away when he smelled alcohol on her breath...
Oh so this is Obama's fault? Protecting the rights of voters, this becomes partially his fault?
VivaAmerica It's Obama's fault for, a) being a classy, educated African American (even if only half of one), thereby nullifying the wind out of the "angry black man" meme; b) it's Obama's fault for being a classy, educated, dashing Democrat who speaks truth to power, and c) it's Obama's fault for not selling his soul to Pluto.
Well, don't you guys know everything is Obama's fault. This guy Shrubya and GOTP obstructionists are sweet as pie and want to work with the angry black dude Obama who refuses to be reasonable. If you don't believe me just ask Romney, Newt, Santorum or any of the twerps running after Obama's job.
"Uppity...I mean condescending." ~ Jan Brewer, Vinegaroon (they eat scorpions for breakfast)
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