McCain threatens to end speech after ‘boos’

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sen. John McCain threatened yesterday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and challenged his statements on organized labor and the Iraq war.

“If you like, I will leave,” Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, told the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.

“OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you.”

The senator had been outlining his position on the Senate immigration debate, saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker provisions that give undocumented aliens a legal path toward citizenship.

Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing.

“Pay a decent wage,” one audience member shouted.

“I’ve heard that statement before,” Mr. McCain said before threatening to leave.

Afterward, the senator said he offered to cut his speech short “because I wanted to be heard.”

In the speech, Mr. McCain also said withdrawing U.S. troops prematurely from Iraq would turn terrorists loose on the United States.

This time, there was no booing — though one audience member cursed from the back of the crowd.

Mr. McCain got a laugh when he finished the speech and asked whether anybody had “questions, comments or insults.”

The first questioner seemed to challenge Mr. McCain’s commitment to organized labor. When the senator started to praise a particular labor group in Arizona, the crowd booed again.

“Stop,” he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the crowd. “I surrender.”

But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

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