David Axelrod, a CNN commentator and former Obama adviser, revealed on CNN that he “cried when they passed Obamacare.”
Axelrod penned what is supposed to be an emotional opinion piece for CNN’s website on Thursday night that describes his reaction when the Affordable Care Act passed in Congress.
“I wept the night the Affordable Care Act passed,” Axelrod writes. “Through my closed office door in the White House, I could hear President Obama and my colleagues cheer as the final tally came in from the House of Representatives that, at long last, would send the ACA to his desk.”
“Sensing my emotions welling, I had excused myself from the gathering in the Roosevelt Room as the votes mounted and walked across the hall to be alone and collect my thoughts,” he continues.
Axelrod says that despite winning a number of policy battles during his career, the ACA victory felt especially emotional because his daughter has epilepsy, and he claims the ACA made it so “many other families would not have to face the same ordeal.”
“Once I collected myself, I found the president to thank him on their behalf. He simply put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘That’s why we do the work,'” he recalls.
The whole point of the piece, of course, is for Axelrod to rail against the “destructive” Graham-Cassidy replacement bill that would leave “millions” without coverage. Axelrod claims he wouldn’t be upset at losing Obama’s legacy, but he will “cry for the sick and vulnerable.”
“I will weep again if this retrograde and reprehensible bill becomes law,” he finishes.