After a Brooklyn principal's controversial ban on "God Bless The USA" from a graduation ceremony in favor of Justin Bieber's song "Baby," several New York Republicans are blasting the decision as anti-American and offensive.
Congressman Bob Turner-- who last year replaced disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner-- even staged a bizarre press conference adjacent to Hawkins' Public School No. 90, where he and several elementary school children camped outside on Monday waving American flags and belting out "Proud To Be An American."
The press conference, however, took a turn when several hecklers showed up to protest Turner's sing-a-long. Amidst the uncomfortable singing, one heckler shouted at Turner:
If you're a real American, you get your facts straight first!...They don't know the words. You Republicans come go to a Republican area and do that, we don’t do that here. This is ridiculous, this is sad. This is so crazy. This is sad.
As The Observer notes, when someone asked the heckler to stop and just let the children proceed, he defiantly responded:
No! The kids don’t even know what they’re singing! They got something you tell them to say! It’s ridiculous! It’s sad, sad, sad. Y’all are going to burn in hell! You all burn in hell! Shame on you! Shame on you!”
Another heckler, Delores Vann, lambasted the whole display as a medium for politicians to take advantage of children. She told reporters on the scene, "We are angry because there are people who don't know the facts and they're out here just going on a couple's people's lives and it's unfair to the children. I don't believe in using children as an instrument and this is what they're doing" and continued to accuse Turner of just trying to get a boost for his upcoming senatorial vote.
The hecklers were heckled in return by the schoolkids, who started to chant, "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"
The whole debacle calls to mind of course, another Republican who isn't a fan of Bieber's "Baby"-- former President George H.W. Bush :