As Obamacare suffers in the Supreme Court, Democratic activists’ are furiously blaming their legal messenger, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
But Republicans are saying that the messenger was tongue-tied by the lousy message. (RELATED: Full coverage of the health care law’s trip to the Supreme Court)
Republicans made their point in a new video that simply broadcasts Verrilli’s hesitation, silence, coughing and water-drinking while trying to explain why the government can make people buy a service from private companies.
“For more than 80 percent of Americans, the insurance system does provide effective access … um … [clink] excuse me, uh, it, because the uh, the uh, the… {clink], excuse me… um…”
The Republican National Committee video’s painful title rubs the message in — “ObamaCare; It’s a tough sell.”
The White House, however, is standing by its man.
“We feel good about his performance,” White House deputy spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.
Progressives, however, aren’t being charitable.
“Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. should be grateful to the Supreme Court for refusing to allow cameras in the courtroom, because his defense of Obamacare on Tuesday may go down as one of the most spectacular flameouts in the history of the court,” wrote Adam Serwer in the progressive magazine, Mother Jones.
Serwer’s article is titled “Obamacare’s Supreme Court Disaster.”
Watch: