President Obama’s former campaign adviser David Axelrod on Friday condemned Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) claim that Obama was getting “perilously close” to being impeached.
“That was his considered legal opinion, as an obstetrician,” Axelrod quipped on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s plainly absurd, but it’s worse than absurd … I think he was way out of bounds.”
Axelrod said Coburn’s remarks, made Wednesday at a town-hall meeting in his home state, are representative of a “kind of virus” that has seized the country.
“When you think about the history of the last 20 years and the escalation of this kind of rhetoric, there are consequences for this country,” Axelrod said.
He pointed to Republicans in particular for “serial attempts to disqualify whoever is the president of the United States,” but said the rhetoric is used on both sides of the aisle.
Axelrod added that he is worried that such escalating rhetoric is becoming the new normal.
“It becomes a self-perpetuating cycle,” Axelrod said. “De-legitimization of the president and this kind of politics will become legitimate and both sides will do it.”
Coburn on Wednesday did not get into specifics of Obama’s perceived transgressions, but said the president has abused his executive privileges.
“I don’t have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanors, but I think you’re getting perilously close,” Coburn said in response to a question about impeachment.
Via: The Hill
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