Shoutouts at presidential speeches are nothing new in politics, but which ones should be included in the official White House transcripts?
Conn Carroll, senior editorial writer at the Washington Examiner, points out that the White House transcript of President Barack Obama’s immigration speech in El Paso, Texas, includes this text:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: They’re racist!
Obama, who was speaking about his Republican opponents on immigration at the time, continued with his speech and did not respond to the person’s outburst. Normally, outbursts are only included in transcripts if the president responds to the remark.
Obama did so at the beginning of the speech:
THE PRESIDENT: I hope everybody is wearing sunscreen.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We live here.
THE PRESIDENT: You say you live here? You don’t need it, huh? (Laughter.)
For context, Obama did not respond to other crowd outbursts like, “We love you,” and, “Tear it down.”
Watch: