In Glenn Beck's world the President Barack Obama is like a mascot for a fast food restaurant. Beck explained Tuesday that the president is like Ronald McDonald because he wouldn't personally repudiate a claim made by the NASA administrator.
Last week, NASA chief Charles Bolden told Al Jazeera that Obama had directed NASA to "reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering -- science, math and engineering."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Monday that Bolden had misspoken. "That was not his task, and that's not the task of NASA," said Gibbs.
Beck appeared on Fox News' morning show Tuesday using a somewhat confusing metaphor to slam the president for not personally denying Bolden's remarks.
"So how did he misspeak and why exactly did it take this long for them to come out and say that?" asked Beck.
"Let me give you a scenario. You go to McDonald's and you're working the front and you come out and say in a press conference, a big press conference where people are questioning, 'Ronald McDonald came to me and he told me, you know, I am the guy who is going to put the fillets out every day,'" said Beck.
"The clown doesn't come out from out back and say, 'Oh no, no. We don't make fillets,'" he continued.
"Where is our clown coming out and saying that's not what NASA -- instantly -- that's not what NASA does?" Beck wondered.
Fox News' Gretchen Carlson quickly asked Beck to clarify who the clown was in his scenario.
"Wait a minute. I just want to be clear. So, you're equating president Obama to the clown?" asked Carlson.
"In that scenario," answered Beck.
It's not the first time that that conservatives have compared Obama to a clown figure. Last year, Rush Limbaugh likened Obama to The Joker from the movie "The Dark Knight."
