US President Barack Obama and Arizona’s Republican Governor Jan Brewer appeared to get into a verbal argument just moments after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix today.
According to reporters at the scene, Gov Brewer could be seen pointing her finger at the president during their brief exchange, before Mr Obama walked away.
Gov Brewer later said the president had been upset about a passage in her recent book in which she described a meeting between the two at the White House.
“He was a little disturbed about my book, Scorpions for Breakfast,” said Gov Brewer, who was there to welcome Mr Obama to Arizona.
Asked which passage of the book he had taken issue with, she suggested Mr Obama felt he had not been portrayed cordially in one of the excerpts.
“I said I was sorry he felt that way but I didn’t get my sentence finished,” she said. “Anyway, we’re glad he’s here. I’ll regroup.”
Mr Obama was in Arizona as part of a three-day, five-state tour to push his economic agenda first outlined in yesterday’s State of the Union address.
A White House official later released a statement describing its version of events.
“The governor handed the President a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her,” it said. “The President said he’d be glad to meet with her again, but did note that after their last meeting, a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book.”
