During a joint press conference in London with President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday, a reporter with the BBC asked President Obama if it was any of his business to say whether or not the U.K. should remain in the European Union.
The UK will be holding a referendum in June as to whether they should leave the E.U. The U.K. still retains its own currency, but is still subject to many other laws and has representatives in the European Parliament.
President Obama is a supporter of the U.K. remaining in the E.U., as is Cameron, and has drawn controversy from people in the U.K. and the U.S. for weighing in.
"Thank you, Mr. President. You've made your views very plain on the fact that British voters should choose to stay in the E.U. But in the interest of good friends always being honest, are you also saying that our decades-old special relationship, that's been through so much, would be fundamentally damaged and changed by our exit? If so, how? And are you also, do you have any sympathy with people who think this is none of your business?" the reporter asked.
"And Prime Minister, to you, if I may, some of your colleagues believe it's utterly wrong that you have dragged our closest ally in the E.U. referendum campaign, what do you say to them?" the reporter asked. "And is it appropriate for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to have brought up President Obama's Kenyan ancestry in the context of this debate?"
Cameron first said that he could not weigh in on another's comments. Cameron then answered over President Obama weighing in on the E.U. referendum before President Obama then talked about a bust of Winston Churchill in the White House and a staff member of his meeting Queen Elizabeth II, and that the special relationship is still very strong.