President Obama’s embattled deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, was scheduled to appear on ABC’s “This Week” yet seems to now have changed her mind as calls for her firing intensify. Cutter took to the press this week to claim that she and the campaign were unfamiliar with Joe Soptic and his story. This turned out to be false: not only was the Obama campaign familiar with Soptic, they hosted him on an OFA conference call and previously used him for a campaign ad.
Said Cutter on CNN:
“I don’t know the facts about when Mr. Soptic’s wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance.”
The conference call:
ABC had Tweeted that Cutter was to appear, but plans have changed and the Tweet disappeared:
An update replaced it:
The campaign has dispatched David Axelrod to go in Cutter’s place as it’s likely Cutter would face too many question regarding her dishonesty on Soptic and the campaign’s suspected coordination with Priorities USA, which seems ripe for an FEC investigation.
We look forward to hearing how Axelrod handles explaining the curious similarities between the campaign’s ad and the super PAC’s ad — as well as whether or not this means Obama has changed his mind about super PAC regulations when it seems his campaign may now be flouting existing law.