At town hall, protester makes Obama-Hitler comparisons

From Frank's August 18 town hall event in Dartmouth, Massachusetts:

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has expressly supported this policy?

FRANK: Well, let me --

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why are you supporting it?

FRANK: Let me -- wait, I will --

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: A real solution.

FRANK: When you asked me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?

[...]

FRANK: Do you want me to answer the question?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yes.

FRANK: Yes. As you stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.

Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

Doocy defends protester against “rude,” out-of-touch Frank

Doocy calls Frank's response to question “rude” and giving “attitude.” Doocy, while discussing Frank's response to the Obama-Hitler protester, did not note the content of the Obama-Hitler protester's question, nor that she held a picture that compared Obama to Adolf Hitler. Instead, Doocy falsely claimed that Frank's “rude” response was to two different people instead of the single Obama-Hitler protester.

Doocy said of Frank:

DOOCY: Well, give him credit for showing up. But let's face it, he was downright rude. Somebody asked him a question --

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Smug.

DOOCY: OK, somebody asked him a question, then he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then to somebody else he said, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.” Barney, they showed up at the senior center in Dartmouth last night for some answers. Give them some answers, don't give them attitude.

Doocy sarcastically derides Frank as “sweet talker” and "[a]ttacking the same people who put him in office." In a later segment, Doocy played a cropped clip of Frank responding to the Obama-Hitler protester that omitted the content of the protester's remarks. Doocy stated of Frank's response:

DOOCY: Meanwhile, a health care confrontation like you've never seen before. Congressman Barney Frank starts attacking the same people who put him in office.

FRANK [video clip]: Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

DOOCY: Oh, yeah, he's a sweet talker. Is this really the way Democrats are defending their plans for health care -- referring to them as dining room tables?

Doocy says Frank's response shows that "[m]aybe ... he's spent a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people. In a later segment, Doocy again did not note the content of the Obama-Hitler protester's question and again falsely claimed Frank's response was to two different people instead of the single Obama-Hitler protester:

DOOCY: Well there were some extraordinary other sound bites that he had. At one point, after a person asked him a question, he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then he said, to somebody else, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.”

Maybe Barney Frank has spent a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people, because real people have real questions. And rather than answers, a lot of those folks up in Dartmouth last night got attitude.

Transcripts

From the August 18 edition of CNN's Larry King Live:

LARRY KING (host): Moments ago, Senator, Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts wrapped up a town hall meeting on health care in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Watch this exchange.

[begin video clip]

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy, as Obama has expressly supported this policy?

FRANK: Well, let me --

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Why are you supporting it?

FRANK: Let me -- wait, I will --

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: A real solution.

FRANK: When you asked me that question, I am going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?

[...]

FRANK: Do you want me to answer the question?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yes.

FRANK: Yes. As you stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is, as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.

Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

[end video clip]

From the August 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): Here's the interesting thing. When he said that, you know, you live in a democracy, use your own individual initiatives, that's what people are doing. They are going out to these town hall meetings and they are voicing their opinions, so they should not be shouted down. As I said earlier, I do give him credit for holding the town hall meeting, because some politicians have walked away from these town hall meetings because they don't want to face the music.

DOOCY: Well, give him credit for showing up. But let's face it, he was downright rude. Somebody asked him a question --

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Smug.

DOOCY: OK, somebody asked him a question, then he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then to somebody else he said, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.” Barney, they showed up at the senior center in Dartmouth last night for some answers. Give them some answers, don't give them attitude.

[...]

DOOCY: Meanwhile, a health care confrontation like you've never seen before. Congressman Barney Frank starts attacking the same people who put him in office.

FRANK [video clip]: Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

DOOCY: Oh, yeah, he's a sweet talker. Is this really the way Democrats are defending their plans for health care -- referring to them as dining room tables?

KILMEADE: I don't think so. Is that rhetorical? I'm sorry.

[...]

DOOCY: Well there were some extraordinary other sound bites that he had. At one point, after a person asked him a question, he said, “On what planet do you spend most of your time?” And then he said, to somebody else, “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table.”

Maybe Barney Frank has spent a little too much time in Washington, D.C., away from real people, because real people have real questions. And rather than answers, a lot of those folks up in Dartmouth last night got attitude.