There’s a clip floating around which captures part of this but I think this extended version is better:
Some context for this statement is helpful. On November 21, 2011 the bipartisan supercommittee–which had been created several months earlier in the debit limit deal–announced it could not reach an agreement on additional deficit reduction. Simply put, it had failed. The President took the occasion to blame Republicans for the failure but also to assure the country the needed deficit reduction would happen “one way or another” thanks to the sequester which he had signed into law. He even promised to defend it by veto if necessary.
Every attempt by the President to blame the GOP for the sequester should be rebutted with this video clip. Any fair recounting of the story must include the facts that his staff proposed it, that he approved it and that he proudly owned it even after Plan A (the supercommittee) had failed to do its job. If the President escapes blame for this it can only be because the media is willing to uncritically transmit his absurd and indefensible spin on what has transpired.
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