'The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president,' Broun said. Broun is asked who'll 'shoot Obama'

Though he didn’t condemn it at the time, Rep. Paul Broun on Friday denounced a constituent’s question about shooting President Barack Obama as “abhorrent,” saying the remark “stunned” him to the point that he decided “not to dignify it with a response.”

An elderly man at a Tuesday night meeting asked the Republican from Georgia, “Who is going to shoot Obama?”


“The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president,” Broun responded, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. “We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president … who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

But as the story of the question spread online, Broun issued a stronger statement Friday, condemning the “abhorrent question.”

He said, “I was stunned by the question and chose not to dignify it with a response; therefore, at that moment, I moved on to the next person with a question. He added, “After the event, my office took action with the appropriate authorities. I deeply regret that this incident happened at all. Furthermore, I condemn all statements — made in sincerity, or jest — that threaten or suggest the use of violence against the president of the United States or any other public official. Such rhetoric cannot and will not be tolerated.”

Earlier, Broun’s press secretary, Jessica Morris, confirmed to the Banner-Herald that the question was asked. “Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on,” she said.

Last month, Broun live-tweeted Obama’s State of the Union address and drew criticism for one in particular. “Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution,” he wrote. “You believe in socialism.”

On the day after the speech, Broun told CBS News, “I stick by that tweet.”

“Everything he does is bigger government, more central control from Washington, D.C. That’s not what our Founding Fathers envisioned the government to be,” he said. “Mr. Obama believes in a big central government, where the federal government controls everything in our lives. That’s socialism. And so I stick by that tweet.”