Skip to footer

'You're in my house': How Obama handles hecklers

President Obama is no stranger to hecklers. Most often, he tries to ignore the disruptions. This time was different.

President Obama may be steadily heading toward the end of his term in office, but when a heckler interrupted a speech he was giving at a gay pride month reception at the White House Wednesday, he made sure that the person knew that they were still in “my house.”

“Hold on a second,” Mr. Obama said, when the audience member launched into a protest about the detention and deportation of gay, lesbian, and transgender immigrants.

As the heckler continued, Obama took on the mannerisms and body language of an annoyed parent. Shaking his head and wagging his finger, the president said the word “no” more than a dozen times.

“Hey. Listen. You're in my house," he said to laughter from the crowd. "You know what? It's not respectful when you get invited to somebody. You're not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry ... Shame on you, you shouldn't be doing this."

A press release by the advocacy group #Not1More identified the heckler as Jennicet Gutiérrez, an undocumented immigrant who is transgender.

“The White House gets to make the decision whether it keeps us safe," Ms. Gutiérrez said in a statement. “There is no pride in how LGBTQ and transgender immigrants are treated in this country. If the President wants to celebrate with us, he should release the LGBTQ immigrants locked up in detention centers immediately.”

The president has had to deal with vocal critics ever since he took office and has been faced with heckling before. As the Monitor's White House correspondent Linda Feldmann reported:

To many observers, instances of the president being heckled are on the rise – particularly, in the case of Obama, by those to his left – though numbers are scarce. Even Mark Knoller of CBS Radio, keeper of myriad presidential statistics, begs off: “Sorry, haven’t kept a heckle count.”

Obama's most notable heckle came during a 2009 speech to Congress where he discussed his health-care plan. “You lie!” shouted Rep. Joe Wilson (R) of South Carolina when Obama asserted that his plan wouldn’t cover undocumented immigrants. During that speech the president mainly ignored the statement, but this time he decided to take on Gutiérrez head-on.

The protester was eventually drowned out by boos and chants of “Obama” from the rest of the crowd before the president called on security to escort the person out.

“As a general rule, I am just fine with a few hecklers. But not when I am up in the house," said Obama said smiling after Gutiérrez was led out.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'You're in my house': How Obama handles hecklers
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0625/You-re-in-my-house-How-Obama-handles-hecklers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe