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Hare Posts Own YouTube Video Defending Constitution -- VIDEO AVAILABLE HERE
The congressman representing the Galesburg area is once again on YouTube; but this time, he's trying to clean up the potential damage created by the last time he was on YouTube.
17th District Congressman Phil Hare has posted a video to his own YouTube page where he again tries to explain what he said following a town hall meeting Thursday in Quincy. Bloggers and even some radio talk show hosts have claimed Hare said he doesn't care about the Constitution.
But Hare again says in the video that's not what he said.
"I said, and I quote, 'I am not worried about the Constitution on this,' meaning, the health care bill," Hare said. "I was not worried that the health care bill would be ruled unconstitutional. If it had been, I wouldn't have voted for a bill that I knew would be unconstitutional."
In a video posted by a purported tea party activist, Hare is asked, allegedly repeatedly, quote, "What about the Constitution?" The Rock Island Democrat referred to that as "Gotcha-type politics."
In an interview before Hare's new video was posted, his November election opponent, Bobby Schilling, told WGIL Hare is not to be believed.
"This is one of the problems in the United States of America, is the fact that we have people that, rather than adhering to oath to uphold the Constitution of United States of America, a lot of them are choosing to walk all over it," Schilling said.
Both Hare and Schilling agree that some of the rhetoric that has been used in the health care debate has no place in politics. The original YouTube video had 245,000 views as of Sunday morning. Hare's new video had 51,000 views.
(Jim Jacobs, standing and left, speaks with Rep. Phil Hare during a town hall meeting Thursday on health care reform in Galesburg. WGIL News Story and Photo by Will Stevenson.)
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