President Obama’s comments that Washington can’t be changed “from the inside” are nothing new, his senior campaign adviser said Friday, explaining that “to move the Congress, you have to enlist the American people.”
“That’s a lesson that’s he’s learned over these four years,” David Axelrod told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie. “That was the lesson he learned from the standoff on the debt ceiling last summer and he’s been making that point consistently.”
That Republican Mitt Romney jumped on the president’s comments a day earlier is “just one more example of how he’s just cascading from one gratuitous attack to another instead of talking about to solutions to problems we face.”
Axelrod also defended the president on his record of immigration reform, which Obama said during his 2008 campaign would be a top priority in his administration. Axelrod blamed partisan gridlock on the issue’s lack of progress and recalled how Obama called on both Republicans and Democrats to the White House to find compromise.
"Every single Republican walked away because it became the policy of the Republican party to walk away from immigration reform. Hopefully, with the votes in November, people will say, 'OK, let’s come back to the table and get this done,'" he said.
But he said the president did sign into law a measure that suspends the deportation of individuals who were brought to the United States as children and raised here. The move was an attempt to salvage portions of the DREAM act, a failed measure that would give such children a path to citizenship.
“He did move on that so there’s no doubt that he’s exercised leadership," he said.
Axelrod also made a jab at the reported preparation Romney is undergoing for upcoming presidential debates beginning next month.
“Gov. Romney has been practicing for months. I think the invasion of Normandy took less preparation than he’s putting into these debates,” he said. “He’s going to be strong in these debates and we have to be ready as well.”
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