Obama: I Didn’t Mean ‘Enemies’

Does this count as a Freudian slip? President Barack Obama said Monday that he should not have used the term “enemies” last month while campaigning. Obama called Republicans “enemies” of Latino voters in a radio interview with Eddie “Polin” Sotelo, a Hispanic radio personality, who asked Obama whether the president deserved Latinos’ votes though some say he has not done enough to pass immigration reform. Obama responded that “if Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re going to reward our friends’ … then I think it’s gonna be harder.” Obama pulled back from that statement Monday, saying he should have said “opponents.” House Minority Leader John Boehner used Obama’s words in his election eve speech in Ohio in an effort to prove the president is deeply partisan. Boehner said, “sadly, we have a president who uses the word 'enemy' for fellow Americans, fellow citizens.”