Pat Dollard

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In a heated exchanged, Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz repeatedly ducked questions on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday about Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa’s call for workers to combat the tea party and “take these son-of-a-witches out.”

“Fox and Friends” host Gretchen Carlson repeatedly pressed Wasserman Schultz for a comment, with the DNC chair repeatedly responding only with “the American people want us to focus on working together” to create jobs.

On Monday, Hoffa stirred up controversy as he addressed a crowd before Obama’s rally and told them to wage war on the tea party.

“President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march,” Hoffa said. “Let’s take these son-of-a-witches out and give America back to America where we belong.”

“The American people, like President Obama understands, want us to focus on working together – when I went home, my constituents asked me to come back to Washington and help continue to get this economy turned around,” she said. “That’s my official response.”

Debbie, however, had very different things to say about heated rhetoric when her friend Gabrielle Giffords was shot, as quoted here in a Salon magazine piece.

FORT LAUDERDALE — Escorted by four Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz solemnly called for more civility in political debate Sunday, a day after a gunman shot and critically injured her close friend Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona.

Wasserman Schultz, D- Weston, said both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of heated rhetoric, which she said may have contributed to a shooting rampage at a “Congress on your corner” event outside a Tucson supermarket that killed six and injured Giffords and 12 others.

The South Florida congresswoman spoke at a media conference at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, shortly after arriving from Washington, D.C., for a ceremonial swearing-in Monday at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s our responsibility, whether we’re Democrats or Republicans, whether we agree or disagree, to remember we’re Americans first, and that words have an impact,” she said. “We don’t know when the words we’ve chosen will send someone whose psyche is frayed to begin with, over the edge.”

“Maybe we can all come together and push the shock jocks and the media, who pride themselves in whipping people into a frenzy on both sides, not to do that anymore,” she said.