Arizona Governor Jan Brewer traded words with President Obama after she greeted him at a Phoenix airport Wednesday.
Brewer and Obama "spoke intensely for a few minutes" after he landed at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, according to a White House pool report. At one point, the GOP governor shook her finger at the president.
"He was a little disturbed about my book," Brewer told a reporter after the incident, referring to her political memoir, "Scorpions for Breakfast." In the book, Brewer depicted Obama as "patronizing" during an earlier meeting.
"I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president," Brewer said. "The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt. So."
Brewer said Obama told her "that he didn't feel I had treated him cordially."
"I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn't get my sentence finished," Brewer said. "Anyway, we're glad he's here. I'll regroup."
The last time Obama met with Brewer was June 2010, when the Arizona governor visited the Oval Office for a private, 30-minute encounter the White House called a "good meeting." At the time, Brewer said the meeting was "very cordial," but in her book she said Obama had been "condescending."
During Wednesday's encounter, Brewer handed Obama a handwritten letter asking him to sit down with her to discuss the "Arizona comeback."
"I thought we probably would've talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another," Brewer said of a potential meeting with the president. "Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country."
This isn't the first time Obama and Brewer have disagreed. In October, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought on by Brewer that accused the Obama administration of failing to enforce immigration laws or maintain control of her state's border with Mexico.
Update:
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office released the letter that she handed President Barack Obama Wednesday in their tense exchange at a Phoenix airport.
The Arizona Republic obtained the letter from Brewer's office, which initially resisted, saying the letter wasn't subject to open-records laws and no copies existed.
"Welcome to Arizona!" begins the letter, which the Republican governor wrote by hand in cursive on official stationery.
"You've arrived in a state at the forefront of America's recovery -- and her future," she writes. "We were at the bottom of the list in job creation. Today, we have a balanced budget and we're in the top 10 for job creation."
She continues, "We both love this great country, but we fundamentally disagree on how to best make America grow and prosper once again. I'd love an opportunity to share with you how we've been able to turn Arizona around with hard choices that turned out to be the right ones. And, of course, my offer to visit the border -- and buy lunch -- still stands."
According to a White House pool report, Brewer "handed him a handwritten letter in an envelope and they spoke intensely for a few minutes. At one point, she pointed her finger at him."
Brewer said that her book, Scorpions For Breakfast, "disturbed" Obama.
President Obama, however, downplayed the incident in an interview with ABC News Thursday. "I think it's always good publicity for a Republican if they're in an argument with me. ...But this was really not a big deal," he said. "Last time we met, she wasn't fully satisfied. But, you know, I think this is a classic example of things getting blown out of proportion."
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