Barack Obama Argues With Heckler in Heated Video: 'Set Up Your Own Rally'

Barack Obama argued with a heckler during a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday.

The former president was talking about how Republicans want "an economy that's very good for folks at the very top, but not always so good for ordinary people" when a heckler interrupted him.

"Like you, Obama!" the man yelled.

"Are you gonna start, are you gonna start yelling?" Obama asked him, as the crowd started booing. "Don't start yelling. Come on. Why you start yelling?"

Former U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks
Former U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event for Arizona Democrats at Cesar Chavez High School on November 02, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Obama then urged the crowd not to "get distracted."

"Hey young man, just listen for a second," he said. "You have to be polite and civil when people are talking, then other people are talking and then you get a chance to talk. Set up your own rally. A lot of people worked hard for this. Come on, man. Come on."

The man, who identified himself as Drew Hernandez, a host with the conservative group Turning Point USA, was seen being escorted out of the event as rally-goers continued to jeer him.

Several rally-goers are seen yelling at him as he was led out in a video Hernandez shared on Twitter.

In a tweet, Hernandez said he "called out" Obama for supporting Katie Hobbs, Arizona's secretary of state and Democratic nominee for governor, saying she "has a history of discriminating against BLACK PEOPLE."

Democrat supporters "unleashed screaming in my face and deported me from the rally," Hernandez added. He has been contacted for comment.

He appeared to be referencing the discrimination case of a Black woman who was fired from her legislative job years ago.

Talonya Adams said her firing from her job as a policy adviser for state Senate Democrats in 2015, when Hobbs was the Senate's Democratic leader, was discriminatory. Federal juries found Adams was discriminated against based on her race and gender and awarded her millions.

Hobbs initially deflected responsibility, blaming Republicans for underpaying Adams and making the ultimate decision to fire her. In December, she apologized "unequivocally" to Adams and acknowledged her response "fell short of taking real accountability."

On Wednesday night, after Hernandez was led out, Obama told the crowd: "Hey everybody, stay focused… Listen up for a second, please. This is part of what happens in our politics these days. We get distracted. You got one person yelling and suddenly everybody's yelling. You get one tweet that's stupid and suddenly everybody's obsessed with the tweet. We can't fall for that. We have to stay focused."

Obama, who has been traveling across the country to stump for Democrats ahead of next week's midterm elections, also shut down a heckler at a rally in Michigan on Saturday.

"We don't have to interrupt each other. We don't have to shout each other down. It's not a good way to do business," he said after that incident.

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on abortion rights, race, education, ... Read more

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