President Barack Obama is taking a Twitter bashing after having a Marine hold an umbrella over his head during a press conference in the Rose Garden Thursday.
In the middle of a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama called for two uniformed Marines to hold umbrellas as it began to drizzle.
"I am going to go ahead and ask folks, why don’t we get a couple of Marines, they're going to look good next to us," the president said. "I've got a change of suit but I don’t know about our prime minister."
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Marines are technically forbidden from carrying umbrellas, as it hinders their ability to properly salute, and to see a Marine holding one is "extremely rare," Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Greg Wolf told CNN.
Twitter users immediately jumped on Obama, arguing that he disrespected the Marines by downgrading them to serve as umbrella-holders.
Others derided Obama for not holding his own umbrella, as former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have in the past.
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