By now you may have heard that GOP Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia failed to condemn a constituent who asked aloud who will "shoot" Obama at an event in Athens on Tuesday. The news is quickly going national as we speak. The Athens Banner-Herald reports that Broun responded to the question -- who is going to shoot Obama? -- with this answer:
The thing is, I know there's a lot of frustration with this president. We're going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we'll elect somebody that's going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Not exactly a ringing condemnation. However, one group who took this seriously is the Secret Service. According to Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, the situation has been looked into.
"We're aware of the incident and the appropriate steps were taken," Donovan told me. "At this point it's a closed matter."
A law enforcement source confirmed that the Secret Service interviewed the constituent and determined that he or she was an "elderly person" who now regrets making a bad joke.
"In this case this was poor taste," the source says. "The person realized that."
Now there's the small matter of whether Broun regrets not condemning the comment. My understanding is more will be forthcoming from his office on this soon, so stay tuned.
