Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) on Tuesday clarified that he did not use a
speech over the weekend to tell high-ranking members of the Democratic Party to "get the hell out" of America.
On Saturday night, West gave a speech to the Palm Beach County GOP
Party Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he decried
the "message of equality of achievement ... of economic dependency ...
of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American
people."
He identified the message with President Obama, Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and "my
dear friend" Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the chairwoman of
the Democratic National Committee, with whom West frequently feuds.
"We need to let them know that Florida is not on the table," West
said. "You can take [your message] to Europe, you can take it to the
bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell
out of the United States of America."
West is known for his fiery rhetoric against opponents, and the speech
prompted a rash of headlines on Monday accusing him of telling Obama
to get out of the United States. But he explained on CNN that he was talking
about the contrast between equality of opportunity and equality of
achievement.
"That's the America that I love [the America of equality of
opportunity], that's the America that's dear to me," he told CNN. "Not
the America where people sitting far away in Washington, D.C., get to
decide the winners and the losers in the free marketplace or decide
who pays a fair share. That's not American values, that's not in
concert with our American Constitution."
