Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday said that comments from an ObamaCare consultant questioning voters’ intelligence fit the definition of a “Washington gaffe” — when someone inadvertently tells you what they believe is true.
“What this insider is saying confirms that they were spinning tales from the beginning that they did not tell the truth about ObamaCare,” McConnell said during a briefing shortly after Republicans elected him majority leader in the next Congress.
{mosads}It is the first time McConnell has weighed in on comments by academic adviser Jonathan Gruber, which surfaced in videos this week.
Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in comments last year credited the “stupidity of the American voter” and a ”lack of transparency” for ObamaCare’s passage.
He has since apologized, telling MSNBC on Tuesday that he was “speaking off the cuff.”
McConnell’s remarks came just minutes after CNN reported a fourth video in which Gruber says the administration was only able to pass the healthcare law because voters weren’t paying attention.
Gruber told an audience in 2010 that the bill’s proponents focused on cutting healthcare costs, even though it wasn’t clear the law would do so. In that speech, he described himself as a “paid consultant to the Obama administration” who “helped write the federal bill.”
The remarks have inflamed Republicans who believe they found new ammunition to fight the still-unpopular law.
As leader, McConnell said he would ensure the Senate votes both on ObamaCare as a whole and on elements of the law, including the individual mandate, the medical device tax and the 40-hour workweek.
“The American people hate and detest ObamaCare. Virtually all of us would like to see it pulled out root and branch,” he told reporters. “The president is not sympathetic with our point of view.”
Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), have tried to distance themselves from Gruber as some Republicans consider holding hearings to question him.
“I don’t know who he is,” Pelosi said. “He didn’t help write our bill.”