Axelrod to CNN: Rosen is 'your employee, not ours'
Comments (93) By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 4/12/12 7:03 PM EDT
Obama campaign senior strategist David Axelrod suggested Thursday that the Romney campaign jumped on Hilary Rosen's comments "like a raft in the deep blue sea" as they drown in "their own problems."
"It was an unfortunate comment," Axelrod said on CNN's "John King USA," following up on a Wednesday night tweet in which he described Rosen's remarks -- made on CNN -- as "inappropriate and offensive."
(Also on POLITICO: 10 things about Hilary Rosen.)
Axelrod reminded King that Rosen is "your employee, not ours."
Though some Romney supporters have identified Rosen as an Obama adviser, Axelrod noted that "she works for CNN. CNN, I think, wouldn't allow her to be an operative for our campaign or the DNC."
The president, vice president, first lady and several other top Obama advisers have all distanced themselves from Rosen in the last day, and Axelrod said that though Rosen is an Obama supporter, Team Obama did what was right in speaking out against her. "I think we have an obligation in politics and public life when someone, even friends, say things that are inappropriate to say so. In fact, in certain ways, when your friends say it, there's more of an obligation to do so," Axelrod said.
(Also on POLITICO: Hilary Rosen, Ann Romney in TV faceoff.)
"I've been disappointed on the other side of the aisle just recently when things happened where Governor Romney and others were not willing to stand up and denounce speech that most people would call inappropriate," he said, in an apparent reference to Rush Limbaugh's comments on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke.
