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Rep. West Fends off Critics, Demands Beckel Apologize

Rep. West Fends off Critics, Demands Beckel Apologize

"The days of conservatives being the punching bag for the Left are over."

As mentioned earlier on The Blaze, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) has come under fire for some strongly worded remarks he made over the weekend. Bob Beckel of Fox News’ The Five, for example, has condemned Rep. West’s comments as “disgraceful,” “despicable,” and “disgusting.”

Naturally, since Rep. West's comments have made headlines, major media outlets have been fighting to get some face time with the controversial Congressman.

First up was Soledad O’Brien of CNN’s Starting Point. O’Brien played a clip of Rep. West’s "get the hell out" remarks, then said: “I don’t get it. I mean, I don’t understand what you’re saying. Which is… you’re telling Obama and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to get out of the United States. Explain it to me.”

“No, Soledad. Soledad. Absolutely not. And you know that,” Rep. West replied.

“No, I truly — no joke. I am not being facetious. I do not get what you’re saying.”

“Well the thing is,” West explained, “you should have listened to the entire speech. You didn’t listen to the entire speech which talked about the contrast between the quality of opportunity which allowed a young man born in 1961 in the inner city of Atlanta Georgia to now represent the highest-income zip code in the entire United States of America. That’s the America that I love, that’s the America that’s dear to me.”

West concluded his remarks by inviting O’Brien to come to south Florida and read the Federalist papers and Constitution with him.

“As fun as that sounds, the two of us sitting down and reading the Federalist papers together,” O'brien giggled. “No, I’ll stick to the TV interviews with you if you don’t mind.”

See the Congressman's exchange with O'brien via Mediaite:

Later in the morning, when Fox and Friends asked the Congressman about Bob Beckle’s freak-out, Rep. West explained, “If you go back and read the transcript of the message that I gave, it was about equality of achievement, about economic dependency, it was about enslaving the American entrepreneur well in spirit. That message needs to leave this country.”

He went on to say that if anyone watched that entire speech they would understand that he’s talking about “a contrast of visions in this country.”

“I think Bob Beckel owes me an apology for saying that he would not refer to me as a Congressional representative nor as a Lieutenant Colonel Retired,” West said.

See the Fox and Friends exchange via Fox Nation:

Of course, once Beckel caught wind of Rep. West’s suggestion, he scoffed at the very thought of dialing back his rhetoric.

“Mr. West,” Beckel said, “Let me just tell you, if you’ve got enough time you can wait, but I am not going to apologize to you.”

Going around the table, Beckel asked his co-hosts if they thought he should apologize. For some reason, some of Beckel’s associates became squeamish and responded to his question with non-committal answers.

"In the end, Beckel declared the situation over, saying that West has one position and he has his own. There wasn’t, however, any apology," writes Mediaite's Jon Bershad.

Watch The Five's discussion via Mediaite:

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