Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) doubled down Tuesday on his criticism of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), calling his GOP colleague's minimum wage comments "ridiculous."
Jindal turned heads Monday at a governors press conference outside the White House, where he lashed out at President Barack Obama for not yet approving the Keystone XL pipeline. The Republican then charged that Obama's plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour was "waving the white flag of surrender."
Malloy was quick to rebuke Jindal, saying Monday that this was "the most insane statement" he had ever heard. The Democrat followed up on that view in a Tuesday interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe," dismissing Jindal's remarks as an “ad hominem attack.”
“It is baseless to equate the talking about the minimum wage with the white flag,” Malloy said.
According to the Associated Press, Jindal did not back down from Malloy's claim that he was instigating partisan politics.
"If that's the most partisan thing he's heard all weekend, I want to make sure he hears a more partisan statement," Jindal said Monday. "I think we can grow the economy more if we would delay more of these Obamacare mandates."
The public altercation between Jindal and Malloy came after Obama lobbied the governors for help on economic policies. In his weekly address last Saturday, Obama stressed that Americans deserve a vote from Congress on the minimum wage issue.
"In the year since I first asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, six states have passed laws to raise theirs, and more states are working on it as we speak," Obama said. "But only Congress can finish the job and lift Americans’ wages across the country."
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