John Podesta, who last week was named as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, apologized Wednesday morning after being quoted as comparing House Republicans to cult followers of Jim Jones.
In an interview earlier this fall - part of which was published in a lengthy Politico Magazine profile - Podesta said that Obama and his advisers should look to work around Congress for the rest of his second term. He suggested that Congress was uncooperative - and then compared the House to members of the cult that committed mass suicide in 1978.
'They should focus on executive action, given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress,' Podesta said.
House Speaker John Boehner's office quickly ripped the comments.
'For those who've forgotten, a Democratic member of Congress was murdered in Jonestown and a current one, Rep. Jackie Speier, was shot five times during the same incident,' Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.
'If this is the attitude of the new White House, it's hard to see how the president gets anything done again.'
Later Wednesday morning, Podesta apologized on Twitter:
In an old interview, my snark got in front of my judgment. I apologize to Speaker Boehner, whom I have always respected.
- John Podesta (@johnpodesta) December 18, 2013
This is not the first time a White House aide has been criticized for a colorful metaphor about House Republicans. In October, in the midst of the last debt-ceiling fight, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer compared Republicans to terrorists, arsonists, and kidnappers.
'What we're not for is negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest,' Pfeiffer said then on CNN.
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Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, December 18, 2013 - Rating: 4.5
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