Ann Coulter Refuses to Apologize for Calling President Obama a "Retard"
Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter refuses to apologize for calling President Barack Obama a "retard", dismissing her critics.
During an appearance on Alan Colmes' Fox News Radio show on Thursday, Coulter shrugged off the outcry. Coulter's tweet set off a firestorm among advocates of people with mental disabilities, but she says that she does not regret using the offensive term and blames "liberal bullies" for the subsequent backlash.
The controversy started when Coulter published a tweet after Monday night's debate between President Obama an Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney which read:
"I highly approve of [Mitt] Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard."
John Franklin Stevens, a 30-year-old Special Olympics athlete with Down syndrome, wrote an open letter to Coulter about her tweet. Other critics, including liberals and conservatives, followed suit and demanded that she apologize.
When asked about the incident on Thursday, however, Coulter decided to double down on her choice of words rather than apologize. She claimed that she didn't use the word "retard" as a derogatory term for people with special needs, stating:
These were all technical terms at one time. “Retard” had been used colloquially to just mean “loser” for 30 years. But no, no — these aggressive victims have to come out and tell you what words to use."
Colmes countered Ann's argument by pointing out that many Americans still believe that the term is as offensive as the "n-word". But Coulter dismissed critics as being the "word police", saying:
"Oh, screw them. That’s what they feel I do? I feel they’re being authoritarian bullying victims."
Coulter has come under fire previously for her use of the word "retard". In August, she called MSNBC host Chris Matthews a "retard" in a tweet as well.