On the "Laura Ingraham Show" on Thursday morning, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) attacked Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) for wearing a hooded sweatshirt on the House floor, calling the act "immature gimmickry...that does not have any place, especially on the House floor and, really, in the United States."
Rush was removed from the House floor on Wednesday morning for violating the chamber's dress code. At the time, he was wearing a hoodie in support of Trayvon Martin, a teenager who was shot and killed last month in Sanford, Fla.
George Zimmerman, the local resident who shot Martin, told police he was suspicious of the teen in part because he was wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman said he acted in self defense and has not been arrested.
Supporters of Martin and his family have adopted the sweatshirt as a protest symbol in calling for Zimmerman's arrest and prosecution.
West called the shooting a "tragedy" in the interview and said he supported a thorough investigation.
"We need to allow the investigation to continue on but, you know, right now [Martin] was unarmed and someone has to be held accountable for that," he told Ingraham.
But the outspoken conservative congressman had nothing but dismissive words for Rush's hoodie display. He seemed to agree with Ingraham's description of the incident as "insanity," and told her that Rush had alarmed the chamber's security personnel.
"Right now, the security folks there on the House floor are laughing about it. But initially, they did not know who it was and they were concerned that someone had just walked off of the street or kind of had broken away from a tour group," he said.
West jokingly suggested he would show up in hooded pajamas on the House floor to mock Rush in the future. "I'm thinking about a University of Tennessee big orange colored hoodie-footie," he said, "and, you know, see if I can sneak by the security and get in there."
Listen to the full interview below:
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The Huffington Post | By Max J. Rosenthal | Posted: 03/29/2012 3:51 pm Updated: 03/29/2012 4:03 pm