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Part of Burton's press gaggle:
Q Can you talk about Senator Reid’s disagreeing with the President on the mosque issue? Has the President spoken to him? Did Reid’s people give you guys a heads-up about that? What was his reaction?
MR. BURTON: We did have a sense that that's what they were going to do. But if you look at what the President said on Friday night, he respects the right of anybody -- Democrat, Republican, independent -- to disagree with his opinion on this. That's one of the other fundamental rights written into the DNA of our Constitution.
Senator Reid is a fiercely independent individual; it’s one of his strengths as a leader of the Democratic Party. So the President feels completely fine that he might disagree.
Q -- you view Senator Reid and the President disagree on this issue?
MR. BURTON: Well, the statements are different. What the President said was that he thinks that there’s a fundamental right for individuals and groups to be treated equally. But the President, like he said on Saturday, didn’t comment specifically on whether or not he was pushing for the site to actually to be put in that spot. Senator Reid’s comment was he thinks that it shouldn’t be.
Q So it is a different statement. It’s a different statement -- do they agree? Do they disagree?
MR. BURTON: I'll leave it to the smart guys like you, Chuck, to decide whether or not that means disagreement or different statement or what’s up and what’s down. But it’s a different take on this issue.
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