Reporter Actually Pushes Obama on Shutdown: Do You Deserve Some Blame for Washington Gridlock?

A reporter asked President Barack Obama on Tuesday whether he deserves any blame for the gridlock in Washington.

Obama avoided answering New York WABC-TV reporter Diana Williams' query directly, insisting instead that he has "consistently sought compromise."

“The real good news is that Democrats and Republicans are very close to agreement in the Senate,” he said during the interview. “And what we’ve seen is a recognition on a part of a number of Senate Republicans that this whole strategy that they pursued of trying to extract ransom for keeping the government open was a bad strategy.”

“Why have you not been able to create a bipartisan atmosphere here?” Williams asked. “And do you take any of the blame yourself for that?”

“I think if you look at my track record over the last four years, I have consistently sought compromise,” Obama answered. “Sometimes to the point where Democrats have been mad at me, but I didn’t care because I did what I thought was best for the country.”

Williams also asked about the so-far disastrous rollout of Obamacare.

“My suspicion is what’s going to happen is when it’s working and everybody is really happy with it, the Republicans will stop calling it Obamacare,” the president said.

(H/T: Mediaite)

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