Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) spoke out this week on recent inflammatory comments by Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), saying that they proved he wasn't "representative of the African-American community or of the Republican Party."
Over the weekend, West told a crowd at an event in Florida that they needed to tell Democrats like President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to take their ideas and "get the hell out of the United States of America." He's since sought to clarify the context of his fiery remarks.
Asked by MSNBC host Martin Bashir about the recent spate of confrontational behavior toward Obama, Moran took West -- and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) -- to task, accusing them of possessing a "weakness of character."
"People like Mr. West and Governor Brewer, and so on -- particularly Mr. West -- is not only not representative of the African-American community or of the Republican Party, let alone of the American public. So what he says really is of little or no consequence, but it's unfortunate," Moran said.
Moran then sought to draw a contrast between the manner in which West and Obama conducted themselves in the political arena.
"He just seems clueless now that he has climbed aboard ship. He's climbed this latter of opportunity that was constructed by so many of his ancestors' sweat, sacrifice, blood. You know they did everything they could for his generation to be successful. But now that he's climbed on board ship, instead of reaching down and steadying the ladder, he wants to push it off. You know 'I'm up here, if you're not with me, too bad,'" he said. "And President Obama, fortunately, is the kind of guy that says 'I was very fortunate to get where I am and I'm going to spend my life trying to steady that ladder of opportunity by reducing college tuition and training our workers, trying to get a decent job for everybody."
According to Moran, Obama was like the "Lion King," while some of the disparaging voices in background were just like "the hyenas" from the play.
(Video above via Mediaite)