Washington - United States President Barack Obama on Thursday accepted an apology from the Republican lawmaker who won instant notoriety for shouting "you lie!" during his prime-time health care speech.
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"I'm a big believer that we all make mistakes. He apologised quickly and without equivocation, and I'm appreciative of that," Obama told reporters as he held a cabinet meeting a day after Representative Joe Wilson's shock outburst.
The president, who used his speech to skewer "bogus claims" from "partisan" critics and warned those who distort the plan he will "call you out", also said he hoped the incident would cool the debate's superheated political rhetoric.
"I hope that some of the fever breaks a little bit," said Obama, who has at times been portrayed by some opponents of the health care overhaul as a Nazi bent on having government officials put elderly Americans to death.
Ambushed by reporters outside his office, Wilson said his eruption during the president's address to a rare joint session of Congress had been "spontaneous" and said party leaders had requested his swift apologise.
"Last night I heard from the leadership that they wanted me to contact the White House and state that my statements were inappropriate. I did," he said in brief remarks that conveyed no particular remorse for the breach in protocol.
The South Carolina seemed to be paying a political price for his universally condemned remarks, as his likely Democratic rival in the 2010 midterm, Rob Miller, had drawn upwards of $250 000 in new donations after the speech.
But US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, visibly shocked and angry at Wilson's outburst, signalled that there was no formal punishment and indicated that she viewed discussions of the incident as time better spent on health care.
"As far as I'm concerned, the episode was unfortunate. Mister Wilson has apologised. It's time for us to talk about health care and not Mister Wilson," the California Democrat told reporters.
"The president did the right thing; just continued on from it and didn't give it any more attention than it deserved," said Pelosi, who called Wilson's outburst "stunning" given the formal setting.
At the White House, Obama used the fallout to make a plea for civility, urging that the divisive debate proceed "without vitriol, without name-calling, without the assumption of the worst in other people's motives".
Wilson, who conveyed his apology by telephone late Wednesday to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said he was "very grateful" to hear an appeal for "a civil discussion about the health care issues".
But the number two Republican in the US Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, condemned Obama's rhetorical broadsides at Republicans in the speech and questioned the president's stated willingness to work with his critics.
"Bottom line: I thought the speech was partisan, uninformative, disingenuous, and not likely to encourage those who have honest disagreements with him to be able to work toward some kind of common solution," he said.
Kyl acknowledged his own words could "seem harsh", adding: "I am ready to drop that at this moment to engage in real bipartisan conversations, if we can do that."
For his part, Obama sought to play up what he has described as an open-door policy for Republicans, telling a reporter who asked whether he would agree to speak with Wilson: "Oh, I talk to everybody." - AFP