Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley was one of Barack Obama's top fundraisers in 2012, raising more than $1 million for his re-election campaign.
Now, in a rare skirmish with the White House, O'Malley is finding out what it's like to be on Obama's bad side.
Days after O'Malley criticized a White House proposal to deal with the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, reports surfaced of a leaked phone call between the governor and a top Obama aide.
The governor didn’t want immigrant children returned to their home countries, the source said, but he refused to shelter them in his own state, opposing a proposed site in Maryland's Carroll County that has since been removed from the list of options.
The details appeared to make O'Malley look like a hypocrite: He publicly criticized the White House's calls to speed up deportations of children, while pleading with the administration to not send them to one site in his state.
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O'Malley, a possible presidential contender, has publicly accused the White House of leaking the conversation.
O’Malley told The Washington Post Wednesday morning that his comments about the Carroll County site had been misconstrued, and he is “absolutely” willing to have the children sheltered in Maryland. He also said he stood by his previous comments challenging the Obama administration, which has been a close ally up until now.
“What we have here is a need to solve a problem,” O’Malley said. “I think that the president has been very courageous in advocating for comprehensive immigration reform, but let’s not confuse that with the very real-life humanitarian crisis of kids who are on our doorstep.”
O’Malley said that his concerns were confirmed over the weekend when graffiti appeared on one proposed Maryland site for the illegals: “No illeagles here. No undocumented Democrats.” The Maryland State Police are investigating the message as a hate crime.
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