An actor impersonating US President Barack Obama was ushered off the stage after he mocked the Republican presidential hopefuls and joked about the real president's racial roots to a room full of conservatives.
The Republican Leadership Conference turned the podium over to impersonator Reggie Brown on Saturday, who drew raucous applause from the audience when he projected lewd photos of disgraced and resigned Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner on Saturday.
Brown returned to Weiner when describing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign: "His supporters are dropping faster than Anthony Weiner's pants."
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The room grew more uncomfortable as Brown turned to the Republican candidates who are looking to make Obama a one-term president.
Brown took a shot at former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who missed the conference because "he's having his foot surgically removed from his mouth".
"Don't worry: it's covered under Obamneycare. Along with spinal transplants," Brown said.
Pawlenty has struggled after previewing his criticism of Romney's health care overhaul in Massachusetts that was a model for Obama's national plan. Pawlenty first called it "Obamneycare", a hybrid of Romneycare and Obamacare. But when given the shot to use
the term while sharing the stage on Monday night with Romney in a candidates' debate, he baulked.
Pawlenty later said it was a mistake not to offer a stronger criticism.
The impersonator also made a joke about Romney's Mormon faith and polygamy, and Representative Michele Bachmann's tea party support.
Organisers then cut off Brown's microphone and turned on music.
Brown opened his routine with jokes about Obama's biography as the son of a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya.
"My mother loved a black man and, no, she was not a Kardashian," the actor said, referencing the reality television family.
Khloe Kardashian is married to Los Angeles Laker Lamar Odom. Other family members have had black romantic interests on the E! television series.
Brown also joked about rumours of the president's birthplace. Obama was born in Hawaii - "or as the tea partyers call it, Kenya", he said.
