Given all the uproar lately about President Obama’s DACA memorandum and the immigration battle that it has spawned, the president’s recent visit to Texas to pow-wow with Governor Rick Perry would be expected to be a tense meeting.
“It’s not that people are evading our enforcement officials,” President Obama explained about the illegal immigration crisis along the U.S. southern border, “the issue is that we’re apprehending them in large numbers. And we’re working to make sure that we have sufficient facilities to detain, house, and process them appropriately, while attending to unaccompanied children with the care and compassion that they deserve while they are in our custody.”
The immigration crisis is such a hot button issue that a few, but certainly not all, Republicans are grumbling for Obama’s impeachment.
So, when President Obama landed in Dallas for a pair of meetings with Governor Perry, it was presumed that there might be some animosity in the air. Some predicted that it might be similar to Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s infamous finger-wagging encounter with the president when he landed in her state.
After their meeting, Perry said, “Five hundred miles south of here in the Rio Grande Valley, there is a humanitarian crisis unfolding that has been created by bad public policy, in particular the failure to secure the border. Securing the border is attainable, and the president needs to commit the resources necessary to get this done.”
But the biggest news to come out of the meeting was a photo.
President Obama shares a light moment Mayor Mike Rawlings, with Gov. Rick Perry at the end of the table. pic.twitter.com/kE9GcPbjoF
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) July 9, 2014
Right now, it is not clear why everyone in the room is laughing, but Governor Perry look like he just got pranked with a Dutch oven. As would be expected, how you interpret the picture depends on which side of the aisle your politics falls.
Dear Teabaggers,
See, Rick Perry sure showed the Kenyan! Rick gave him the Texas Scowl.
And he was scared. pic.twitter.com/ggAw1I1m0o
— Ina (@InaMaziarcz) July 10, 2014
@PatDollard Tense times, #Obama laughs at #Texas expense.. Gov Rick Perry is right to be angry, he's the only adult in the room;(
— KAREN WICKLINE (@wickwife) July 10, 2014
Governor Perry had previously declined to meet President Obama as he landed in Texas, but ended up greeting him with a handshake on the tarmac in Dallas.
Image via YouTube