President Barack Obama said Republicans are too concerned with Rush Limbaugh and the challenges they'll face from tea partiers if they compromise with Democrats on Obamacare.
Obama told CNN's "New Day" he gets "frustrated," and hopes Republicans will start to "think less about politics and party and think more about what’s good for the country.”
“I’ve made this argument to my Republican friends privately, and, by the way, sometimes they say to me privately, ‘I agree with you, but I’m worried about a primary from, you know, somebody in the tea party back in my district’ or, ‘I’m worried about what Rush Limbaugh is going to say about me on radio,'" Obama said.
Below, more on Obama's CNN interview from the AP:
AUBURN, N.Y. — President Barack Obama says that when it comes to Washington's lack of action on big issues, "the buck stops with me."
But Obama also criticizes Republicans for focusing on issues that would be bad for the economy, like shutting down the government in order to defund "Obamacare" or not raising the nation's borrowing limit.
The president says some Republicans tell him privately that they agree with him, but are worried about facing primary challenges from the tea party or being criticized by conservative commentators. Obama says that while he can't force lawmakers to do the right thing, he will stay focused on what he knows "will be good for the American people."
Obama spoke during an interview with CNN's "New Day."
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