Republican sheriff in Massachusetts defends President Barack Obama assassination joke
Joke made at public breakfast
U.S. President Barack Obama (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
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Posted: 03/20/2013
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By: Associated Press
PLYMOUTH, Mass. - A Republican sheriff in Massachusetts is defending a joke he told at a St. Patrick's Day breakfast in which Abraham Lincoln visits President Barack Obama in a dream and suggests he go to the theater.
Lincoln was assassinated in a theater, and Democratic critics say even a joke suggesting the current president might get shot was inappropriate, especially from a public safety official.
Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. made the joke Sunday at the heavily Republican breakfast.
He told the Patriot Ledger of Quincy on Tuesday the uproar over an old joke is "absurd."
He says it was no different than Democrats joking about former President George W. Bush going hunting with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally wounded a hunting partner in 2006.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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