Monday night in Los Angeles, Senator Barbara Boxer held a major fundraising event for her reelection campaign. Her headline act was President Barack Obama. For Tea Party and GOP activists, what they hoped to be a liberal love fest with the President, there was a bit of liberal dissent they did not expect. During President Obama’s remarks advocates for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy preventing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Americans from serving in the military heckled him from the audience. They were demanding that the President repeal the law preventing LGBT military service.
CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser reports:
As the president was praising Boxer, a fellow Democrat and three term senator who is facing a tough re-election battle this year, demonstrators in the crowd interrupted, asking Obama what he is going to do about the policy – implemented during the Clinton administration – that prohibits gays and lesbians from openly serving in the country’s armed forces.
Obama, who has called on Congress to lift the ban, responded by saying: “What the young man was talking about was we need to – we need to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which I agree with and which we have begun to do.”
Here is the transcript of the incident:
THE PRESIDENT: She’s (Sen. Barbara Boxer) passionate about fighting for jobs, jobs with good wages, jobs with good benefits. She’s passionate about fighting for California’s families. She is –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!”
THE PRESIDENT: We are going to do that. Hey, hold on a second, hold on a second. We are going to do that.
AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
THE PRESIDENT: Here we go. All right – guys, guys, all right. I agree, I agree, I agree. (Applause.) Now –
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no, no, listen. What the young man was talking about was we need to – we need to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which I agree with and which we have begun to do. (Applause.) But let me say this: When you’ve got an ally like Barbara Boxer and you’ve got an ally like me who are standing for the same thing, then you don’t know exactly why you’ve got to holler, because we already hear you, all right? (Applause.) I mean, it would have made more sense to holler that at the people who oppose it.
Now while I have heard the any press is good press, I have to ask this question. What exactly do advocates for the change in policy hope to gain by disrupting a Major fundraising event for one of our strongest supporters in order to heckle the a president who has publicly stated support for our cause?
Sorry, I just don’t get the logic here.