Congressman Screams at President Obama
SANCHEZ: Oh, boy, checking social media, and a lot of you guys are riles up today about a lot of the stories that we've been presenting you. We try and bring them to you as fairly and as balanced as we possibly can. Let's continue. Welcome back, by the way. I'm Rick Sanchez right here in the world headquarters of CNN in Atlanta. Much has been made about the schools and the parents who chose not to let their kids listen to President Obama recently. But there's a little twist on that. The entire school district in Arlington, Texas chose not to play the president's speech. Not to play the president's speech. But guess what they're doing now? They're bussing students to Cowboys Stadium to listen to, among others, former President George W. Bush. Wayne Slater is a senior political writer for "The Dallas Morning News." Good afternoon, Wayne.</s>WAYNE SLATER, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Great to be with you, Rick. Can you explain this to us? I mean to the rest of the country, who maybe don't speak Texan? Well, you know, there is an official answer by the Arlington School Board, school district, and then there's the real answer. This is Bush country. And a lot of folks don't like Obama, and this district was timid about allowing the students to see Obama, but the idea that you could bus a bunch of kids to Cowboy Stadium, which is a kind of church here in Texas, to hear the former president who still is well-regarded in many parts of Texas and some other, I guess, some cowboy, I guess Dallas cowboy greats, legends, which I guess means folks who haven't been indicted yet or charged with anything, is the kind of field trip that is made in dreams here in Texas.</s>SANCHEZ: Well, I will tell you this, I will pay to listen to Tom Landry speak. I think he happens to be one of the greatest football coaches who ever lived. The guy is a legend.</s>SLATER: Yes, no question. And this is actually going to be, I think Roger Staubach and some others.</s>SANCHEZ: Another good one.</s>SLATER: Yes.</s>SANCHEZ: But the fact is, Barack Obama, love him or not, is the president right now of the United States. And by choosing to not let your kids listen to him, but then spend money and actually even endanger the kids by putting them on a bus and taking them across town to listen to a former president, to the rest of the country looks just like it's almost Machiavellian.</s>SLATER: It looks like what it is, Rick. And you know you wanted to say. Look, nobody is criticizing the idea that George Bush, that students get a great field trip to see the former president and others, a great field trip. The question is the decision not to allow students in this school district to hear the president of the United States Live, it is appalling; it is extraordinary. We could never imagine this, certainly in recent years if John Kennedy were going to be on television, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan were going to be on. I travelled with Bush a lot. George Bush as governor, as a candidate for president. We went to lots of schools. I guess that disrupted things. As president, you remember where George Bush was when the word came about 9/11. He was in a classroom, totally appropriate. The idea that a school district would say don't listen to this president tells you how polarized we are, how toxic our debate has become.</s>SANCHEZ: You make good points. And I thank you for them. Wayne Slater as usual. By the way, I'm going to go see a little football this week myself. I'm going to see mammoth playing Florida International University. So I suppose I should say to you, "Hook'em Horns?"</s>SLATER: Hook'em Horns.</s>SANCHEZ: There you go.</s>SLATER: Never see a good game. See you later.</s>SANCHEZ: Thanks. I appreciate it, Wayne.</s>SLATER: OK.</s>SANCHEZ: Sometimes a disaster is so impactful that all you have to do is show the pictures. I'm going to do that next. Flooding in Turkey. They are amazing. In narrative form or in non- narrative foam. And remember, the after show, I'm going to have some guy named Perez Hilton on with me. He's going to sit right there, and everybody on our staff says he is quite the showman. We'll see. Stay with us.