President Obama warned top donors that he believes Republicans can take Congress and the White House this year and criticized the media for “hyperventilat[ing]” about Mitt Romney raising more money than his campaign in May.
“[W]e’re going to have to deal with these super-PACs in a serious way. And if we don’t, frankly I think the political [scene] is going to be changed permanently . . . They’re gonna run Congress and the White House,” Obama said on a conference call yesterday, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast.
“I can’t do this by myself, and the progress we’ve made could unravel pretty quickly,” he also said. Obama might have been referring to Obamacare in that line, given that the Supreme Court’s ruling that the mandate is a tax strengthens the possibility that the law can be repealed by a 51-vote majority in the Senate. In 50-50 splits, the vice president can provide the tie-breaking vote.
Obama also criticized media coverage of Romney’s fundraising. “[T]he media hear these numbers and hyperventilate over it, and there’s a tendency to blow them out of proportion. But it does make the process more transparent. We see where we stand. And right now on a month-to-month basis, we’ve fallen behind.”
Romney raised $4.6 million in the 24 hours following the Supreme Court’s decision that the individual mandate could remain law as a tax, even though it is unconstitutional as a penalty under the Commerce Clause.
