White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday that he had no idea President Obama’s senior campaign adviser had struck back over the weekend at a tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, calling Obama “stupid.”
“I did not. I am learning about it right now, live from you,” Carney told reporters during the daily White House briefing.
Grassley's tweet criticized Obama, a former constitutional law professor, for saying it would be "unprecedented" for the Supreme Court to overturn the 2010 health care reform law. In Twitter shorthand, Grassley wrote: "Constituents askd why i am not outraged at PresO attack on supreme court independence. Bcause Am ppl r not stupid as this x prof of con law."
In response, David Axelrod tweeted: “Heads up, Sen. Grassley. I think a 6-year-old hijacked your account and is sending out foolish Tweets just to embarrass you!”
Carney reiterated his defense of Obama's comments on the pending Supreme Court decision. “It’s an unremarkable observation of fact that since the Lochner era, the Supreme Court has given deference to Congress on matters relating to the national economy,” Carney said. He said that Obama has made it clear that he believes that the law is constitutional and that the court will uphold it.
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