Obama dials off of 'enemies' as Boehner tees up

Washington (CNN) - President Obama appeared to be walking back his comments in a recent radio interview where he said Latino American voters should "punish our enemies" by turning out to vote in the midterm election.

In an interview with radio host Michael Baisden on Monday, President Obama admitted to using the wrong word choice. "I probably should have used the word "opponents" instead of enemies. Now the Republicans are saying that I'm calling them enemies."

Mr. Obama's walk back seems to be a preemptive strike against Republican House minority leader John Boehner who planned to blast Obama Monday evening, taking umbrage with the President's use of the word enemies to describe Republican opponents.

The President used the word "enemies" during a radio interview with Univision's Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo last week when he tried to encourage Latinos to vote, despite their frustration with the lack of immigration reform.

"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, we're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us," Obama said. "If they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."