A day after heckling the president during his speech on health care reform the Republican congressman apologized again but said he’s sticking to his guns. Rep. Joe WIlson said on Thursday that he regretted his outburst and but maintains his stance on Obama’s proposed health care legislation.
“I truly had to speak out,” Wilson said about yelling: “You lie!” during Obama’s speech after the president insisted illegal immigrants would not receive full health coverage under the proposed reform.
“I didn’t snap either, because if I’d snapped I would have kept on objecting,” the congressman said. “But I didn’t.”
When asked if he was remorseful about his statement, Wilson replied, “Oh, yeah I wouldn’t do that – I wouldn’t have planned it or done it again.”
He added a better way to have handled the situation would have been to hold a news conference after the president’s speech, according to CNN.
“People know that I am respectful of the president. I’m respectful of the office of the presidency. But I am just very passionate about the issues that I believe in and I know what was stated was inaccurate.”
Wilson went on to describe the verbiage of two bills that was written by Democrats as “feel good wording about illegal aliens. It has no true enforcement capability, no meaning.”
While the congressman claims he had no intention to interfere with President Obama’s speech, he reiterated his immediate apology.
While Wilson did, in fact, interrupt Obama’s speech and quickly became the highlight of the night, he said he actually enjoyed the end of the speech.
“The conclusion of the speech was actually inspiring,” he said. “As the speech went on, from my perspective, it got better.”
