At his daily briefing today, press secretary Robert Gibbs distanced the White House from an off-color joke comedian Wanda Sykes made about Rush Limbaugh the 9/11 attacks during the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday.
Sykes criticized Limbaugh for hoping Obama would fail, calling his remarks treasonous.
“To me, that’s treason,” Sykes said. “He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight.”
President Obama appeared to laugh at the joke, but today Gibbs called the comments inappropriate.
“I think there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy,” he said. “I think there’s no doubt that 9/11 is part of that.”