Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) explained his now-infamous tweet about being no “nail” to President Obama’s “hammer,” saying he didn’t begrudge President Obama’s family time last weekend in Paris.
“The message is that he ought to know better,” Grassley told CBS of his tweet, explaining that the president knew well that the Finance Committee’s staff was working hard to hammer out a healthcare deal.
“And I don’t deny the president having a vacation with his family,” Grassley continued. “But to say what he said…It didn’t help the cause and I did resent it.”
Grassley explained that he saw the president’s remarks about healthcare reform last weekend crawling across the bottom of a cable news channel, and whipped out his BlackBerry to send the message.
“I interpret that president’s remarks about ‘get the job done’ as hammering us,” Grassley asserted. “And I wanted the president to know that he can hammer, but he ain’t hammering this nail.”
“He didn’t need to say what he said, particularly when my staff and Sen. Baucus’s staff were working day and night on Saturday and Sunday while he was walking around the promenade,” the ranking member of the Finance Committee added.