As many may have expected, Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry was booed by Jimmy Kimmel’s South by Southwest festival audience in Austin on Tuesday.
“I thought maybe here in Austin that you’d get a favorable response,” Kimmel said after boos overtook the cheers welcoming the politician on stage for the interview (above). “But what have you done to make these people dislike you so intensely?”
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Perry didn’t speculate, but did describe the liberal Texas city as “the blueberry in the Tomato soup in the state.”
“That’s a weird analogy,” Kimmel noted.
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While Perry did not receive the warmest of welcomes, he was able to get audience support when Kimmel brought up the agenda to move Texas toward the decriminalization of marijuana.
“We’re trying to be smart about it. You don’t want to ruin a kid’s life for having a joint, and that was historically what you saw,” Perry said. “We put drug courts into place, I think making some really smart decisions about dealing with people — particularly when it comes to the small amounts of drugs. We’ve been able to shut down a prison in the state of Texas. That’s conservative, man.”
Perry has been the state’s longest-serving governor to date, with three terms under his belt, but has stated he will not seek re-election for a fourth. Instead, there has been speculation that he will once again run for President of the United States. However, he wouldn’t confirm his intentions of campaigning for the Oval Office.
“This is not the crowd that I want to make this announcement,” the politician joked.
“Why would you run for President?” Kimmel asked. “I mean, it didn’t go that great last time.”
“America is a great place for second chances,” Perry countered. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
Watch part two of Perry’s interview with Kimmel below:
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