The Hill News

An outspoken Tea Party freshman admitted to calling President Obama “idiotic” but apologized Friday.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said he meant to call Obama’s plan to present a jobs speech “idiotic,” rather than the president himself.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” he said on MSNBC. “That was over the line.”

Walsh made the original comment at a town-hall meeting earlier in the week.

“How idiotic is this president?” Walsh said, according to comments reported by the Northwest Herald. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.”

Walsh said he apologized for the comment at another town-hall meeting Thursday night.

Walsh responded to the announcement that Obama would deliver a speech focused on jobs to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8 by saying he would skip the event in order to “talk to real job creators.”