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Watch: Maddow Skewers Tea Party Congressman For Jaw-Dropping SOTU Comments

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var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};After the SOTU, Rachel Maddow interviewed GOP Congressman Tim Huelskamp, and challenged what she called his “spectacularly disingenuous” comments.

At his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama last night delivered a solid speech and a surprisingly upbeat and positive olive branch to Republicans. Of course, the GOP had their marching orders, talking points, and pre-conceived notions, so whether or not they actually listened and heard the President’s speech will forever remain a mystery.

Take Tea Party Republican U.S. Congressman Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.

During and after the State of the Union, Huelskamp’s Twitter stream read like a diatribe from a Bellevue patient.

But it was this tweet that really stuck in the craw of many, including MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow:

Maddow challenged Rep. Huelskamp on-air over his strange and arrogant comments.

“I have to ask you if that was tongue in cheek — do you really believe that was ‘politicizing’ the military,” she asked.

Hueskamp responded that the GOP “actually invited our own veteran,” and claimed that the President “ran against the military” and “highlights them when it helps politically.”

Never mind that President Obama spent hours with the troops during his vacation in Hawaii over Christmas, and made most of that visit off-limits to the press — so it wasn’t “political.”

Maddow would not let the Tea Party member from Kansas get away with that.

“How did he run against the military?”

“It’s pretty clear — he wanted to bring the troops home, he wants to close Gitmo, he wants to do all kinds of things…”

“Is bringing the troops home your definition of being against the military?”

That’s when Huelskamp lost it.

“You know they’re hiding the truth on Benghazi,” Rep. Huelskamp said. “We’re looking for them to come forward, let those folks testify who were on the ground.”

“It’s also the responsibility of Hillary Clinton,” he added. “Just a few months ago she said what difference does it make? Two days ago she says it was the biggest regret in her life.”

As the interview progressed, Huelskamp accused Maddow of “being a cheerleader” instead of a journalist.

“Did you just call me a cheerleader?” she asked, shocked.

“I don’t know, maybe you have that history,” Huelskamp quipped. “If it was Bush, you would be jumping and screaming.”

“You’re amazing,” Maddow responded, clearly shocked and irritated.

Huelskamp, increasingly angered and tongue-tied, went on to claim, ridiculously, that, Obama in the speech had “said, ‘I don’t like the American people, who they elect. That’s what the president was saying. He said, ‘I don’t like Congress, I don’t like the American people who sent these people up here.'”

Watch the entire interview.

And scroll through the tweets of viewers from during and immediately after the interview, which we published below.

http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/EmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_msnbc_sotu_tim_140128

//storify.com/davidbadash/maddow-skewers-tea-party-congressman-over-sotu-com/embed

[View the story “Maddow Skewers Tea Party Congressman For Jaw-Dropping SOTU Comments” on Storify]

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