President Donald Trump has come under fire for delivering a highly politicized speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia Monday.
President Trump has come under fire after delivering a highly politicized speech at the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia Monday.
“I said, ‘Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?’ Right?” Trump said as he addressed the crowd of between 35,000 and 40,000.
Trump then went on to knock former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the “cesspool” of politics and lack of “loyalty,” as well as tout his Electoral College victory while promising to “kill” the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” to the scouts in the crowd, ranging in age from 12 to 18.
“Do you remember that incredible night with the maps? And the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red it was unbelievable and they didn’t know what to say,” Trump said at one point during his 35-minute speech, which received a mix of cheers and jeers.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) received an onslaught of backlash not long after Trump took the stage, with many angry commenters posting to their Facebook page to condemn the speech.
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“I am the proud mother of a former scout who was sheltered from that pack of lies speech at the Jamboree. Done with the scouts after you felt the need to have [my kid] listen to a liar stroke his ego on our time,” Jude Nevans Cleaver wrote.
Jack Phelps McGonegal Hassinger, a member of the Eagle Scout Class of 1969, also took issue with this year’s Jamboree saying: “If National doesn't take decisive and appropriate action to address what happened, the BSA will have lost its soul forever, and lost the participation of my sons and me.”
Detractors also took issue with what appeared to be at one point, the booing of Obama.
“By the way, just a question: Did President Obama ever come to a Jamboree?” Trump asked the crowd, some of which booed in response. “The answer is no, but we’ll be back.”
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Obama never addressed the gathering in person, but recorded a video message to the National Jamboree in 2010. He also was reportedly a member of the Indonesian Scout Association, where he reached the equivalent of a Cub Scout.
The outcry led the BSA to issue a statement distancing itself from Trump.
“The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy,” the organization said in a statement Monday. “The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies.”
But by Tuesday, Trump had moved on to other issues on his plate, taking to Twitter to commend his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and bash the probe into possible collusion with Russia as a “witch hunt.”
“Next up, 11 year old Barron Trump!” he tweeted.
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