Rep. Paul Broun is asked, 'Who is going to shoot Obama?'

By Melissa Bell



Rep. Paul C. Broun (R-Ga.) (Gregory Smith/AP)

At a town hall meeting in Athens, Ga., Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) spoke about his new role investigating climate change, but it was a shocking question from one of the attendees that has made national headlines:

"Who is going to shoot Obama?" an unidentified person in the audience asked Broun. The question elicited a "big laugh," according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

Rather than confront the question head-on, Broun responded by changing the subject to health care: "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."

The newspaper first heard about the question from an angry commenter on its Web site and when a reporter asked Broun's press secretary, Jessica Morris, she confirmed that the question had been asked. "Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on," she told the paper.

My colleague Greg Sargent reports that he spoke with the Secret Service, which did not take the comment so lightly. The spokesman reports the Secret Service interviewed the constituent who made the comment and "determined that he or she was an 'elderly person' who now regrets making a bad joke."

Did Broun responded appropriately? Or should he have condemned the questioner more outright?