TPMDC

Axelrod On Tax Cuts: Wrong For Dems To ‘Cut Your Nose Off To Spite Your Face’

David Axelrod on CNN's State of the Union

White House senior adviser David Axelrod yesterday doubled down on President Obama’s comments about “sanctimonious” and “purist” progressives who oppose his tax cut deal with the Republicans, telling them that “you can focus on what you don’t like, and cut your nose off to spite your face, and that would be the wrong thing to do.”

Axelrod was on State Of The Union yesterday, where host Candy Crowley asked him about the negative reaction to the deal and to the President’s scolding of progressives who opposed it. Axelrod said: “I don’t think you could ever say you’re selling anyone down the river when you’re talking about tax cuts that are going to make significant difference.”

Crowley asked if he thought the deal could have been handled better, and Axelrod replied: “We handled it as best as we could given the time frame that we had. I’m not looking for style points here, I’m looking for progress for the American people.”

Here’s the video — the talk about liberals comes at about the 5:30 mark:

Top Stories From TPM

Ohio Republicans Push Law To Penalize Colleges For Helping Students Vote

Wow, This is Pretty Epic

Longest-Serving Openly Gay Lawmaker In The U.S. Can Now Marry Her Parter In Minnesota

Eric Holder To Darrell Issa: Your Conduct Is 'Unacceptable' And 'Shameful'

Florida Man Shoots Himself While Bowling

House GOP To Hold Yet Another Obamacare Repeal Vote

Disqus Conversations

Click here to read the Disqus Commenting FAQ.

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Associate Editor

Nick Martin

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Sahil Kapur

Eric Lach

Hunter Walker

Frontpage Editor

Zoë Schlanger

News Writers

Tom Kludt

Video Editor

Michael Lester

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Bruce Ellerstein

Associate Publisher

Kyle Leighton

Assistant To The Publisher

Joe Ragazzo

Designer/Developer

Matthew Wozniak

Design Associate

Christopher O’Driscoll