The Missouri State Fair has banned a rodeo clown who this past weekend donned a President Obama mask, and asked a crowd if they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull."

Officials said the clown will never perform at the fair again, the Associated Press reported.

Organizers are also reviewing whether to take any actions against the contractor responsible for Saturday's rodeo.

There has been bipartisan criticism of the gag.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, tweeted that the clown act was "disrespectful" to Obama, and "we are better than this."

A spokesman for Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, said the governor "agrees that the performance was disrespectful and offensive, and does not reflect the values of Missourians or the State Fair."

State Fair officials called the performance "inappropriate," and added in a statement: "We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday's rodeo badly missed that mark." [...]

"Perry Beam, who was among the spectators, said 'everybody screamed' and 'just went wild' as the announcer talked about having the bull run down the clown with the Obama mask.

"'It was at that point I began to feel a sense of fear. It was that level of enthusiasm,' Beam, a 48-year-old musician from Higginsville, said Sunday, referring to the reaction from the crowd that filled the fair's grandstand.

Lawrence O'Donnell spoke to one of the spectators in the crowd, Perry Beam, who took pictures of the "Obama rodeo clown" which went viral on the Internet and asked him about how he felt while watching the event. Beam compared sitting in that crowd and listening to and watching what he did to a KKK rally.

I wish I could say I was shocked, but given the amount of overt, open racism I've been exposed to from people I know personally in this state and that I'm thoroughly disgusted with, I'm not.