Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said on Friday that in the moments after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the health care law came out on Thursday, he and Obama campaign manager Jim Messina were fooled by an incorrect headline.
“We were watching Twitter and the first thing that comes across is the CNN piece that said 'mandate struck down,'” Axelrod said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “and we’re like trying to absorb this and all the sudden there’s a big cheer outside. And we’re saying, what the heck is this?”
Once Axelrod and Messina learned the correct news, he said, they were overcome with emotion. “We went outside and the kids were cheering and crying and hugging,” Axelrod said. “It was a reminder of why you do the work.”
Axelrod and Messina were not the only one fooled initially by erroneous reports. The president himself was, too, Politico reported.
Axelrod was also quick to point out that Mitt Romney originally defended the individual mandate, whether as a mandate or as a tax.
“He thought it was good public policy, does he not think it is now? He ought to answer that question,” Axelrod said.
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