President Obama’s spokesman cited the ambiguity of the statement, “there will be blood,” as he avoided condemning the remark made by a Michigan Democrat who opposes the imminent state’s right-to-work legislation.

“The president believes in debate that’s civil,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today. “I haven’t seen those comments and I’m not sure that they mean what some would interpret them to mean. I just haven’t seen them.”

Speaking on the state House floor today,  Democratic state Rep. Douglas Geiss said “There will be blood” as a result of the bill’s passage.

Relations between unions and proponents of the right-to-work bill have already gotten testy, as a crowd of protesters tore down a large tent raised by Americans for Prosperity’s Michigan chapter.

“They had knives,” AFP’s Annie Patnaude told The Washington Examiner. “They cut all of the ties (holding the tent up) and then they started slashing the tent itself… I remember them saying, ‘We’re going to destroy these people.’”