WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton made fun of Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) Monday night for saying that dozens of House Democrats are members of the Communist party.
During a campaign event in New York City, Clinton praised President Barack Obama for stabilizing the economy and for health care reform, and noted that Obama has "had to get all this done with a House of Representatives that had one of the tea party members claim that 78 to 81 members of the Democratic caucus were members of the Communist party." Clinton was referring to West, who declared in April that all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are communists.
Clinton lamented that "neither the Republican nominee nor other Republican leaders rebuked [West] for saying that," according to a White House pool report. He also wondered aloud how West's claims could even be true, given that it's 2012.
"This is not the 1950s!" Clinton said. "At least Joe McCarthy could skate on the premise that there were still one or two living communists walking around. Nobody’s seen a communist in over a decade!"
Clinton also got in a shot at Donald Trump, who last week tried to reignite the false debate about Obama's birth certificate.
Obama has been successful in racking up accomplishments "while people as recently as last week were still saying he wasn’t born in America," Clinton said.
Below, more of West's "greatest" hits:
