Updated Jan 26, 2012 - 11:36 am
'Thin-skinned' Obama caught Brewer by surprise
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Print | Originally published: Jan 25, 2012 - 6:21 pm
PHOENIX -- When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer met President Barack Obama at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on Wednesday, the last thing she expected was a dressing-down of her book.
After Obama departed Air Force One, he and Brewer were observed to be having an intense conversation, with the governor even photographed pointing her finger at the president.
"He was a little thin-skinned," Brewer said in an appearance on News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Mac & Gaydos Show.
Click here to listen to the full interview.
According to Brewer, she gave Obama a handwritten letter that welcomed him to Arizona and reiterated an offer to have him visit the border. She said she would even buy him lunch.
But the president had other things on his mind. In an official comment, the White House said that Obama took offense to an "inaccurately" described meeting between the two in the Oval Office. Brewer published her account in her book Breakfast with Scorpions.
"I was a bit taken aback by his stance and his attitude," the governor said. "I tried to listen and tried to be respectful to him."
Brewer admitted that, as the pictures depict, she was attempting to not be angry with Obama.
"I was trying to make a point that I thought that my book was right and correct," she said.
Brewer described the Oval Office meeting as more of a lecture than a meeting.
"I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least," Brewer said.
The governor also took exception to Obama's negative book review because, when prompted, the president admitted to having only read excerpts of the book and not the whole thing.
While the Associated Press reported that Obama told Brewer he would be happy to meet with her again, Brewer denied that in her interview Wednesday night.
Despite the heated exchange, Brewer said in a statement that she and Obama are working towards reforming the country, but admitted that they have "starkly different" viewpoints on how that should be accomplished.
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