Eleanor Holmes Norton interrupts Obama multiple times at White House meeting

theGRIO REPORT - Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) interrupted President Obama multiple times when he was answering her question related to a bill to fund the District, according to a source in the room...

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Delegate to the House of Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) interrupted President Barack Obama multiple times when he was answering her question related to a bill to fund Washington, D.C., according to a source in the room.

During Wednesday’s meeting between House Democrats and the president at the White House, Norton and Obama had what some colleagues described to the Washington Post as “a heated exchange.”

The D.C. lawmaker pushed for a bill to be passed that would allow the District to use its locally raised tax funds while under budget restraints due to the government shutdown.

President Obama did not agree with passing separate funding bills, but instead said Republicans need to work out a deal to fund the entire government.

“Do you think John Boehner cares about D.C., Eleanor?” President Obama questioned at one point in the discussion, implying it was a tactic by Republicans to divide them.

Norton described the encounter as a “conversation,” telling the Post that she “wasn’t picking a fight with the president, I think the people of the District would expect me to have a conversation with him rather than just asking a question.”

However one fellow lawmaker who attended the meeting said Norton was “self-absorbed” and “strident.”

According to the source from the meeting, President Obama understood that Norton was just doing her job.

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals

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