Must-see morning clip: "Ideological arguments"

Obama doubles down on his criticism of Romney

Published September 13, 2012 1:32PM (EDT)

In an interview with Telemundo, President Obama reiterated his criticism that Mitt Romney tends to "shoot first and aim later," telling Jose Diaz Balart that he didn't think yesterday was a time for "having ideological arguments."

"I have observed that there's a tendency to shoot before you aim, as I pointed out, and that as President, my obligation is to focus on security for our people, making sure that we gather all the facts, making sure that we're advancing American interests and not having ideological arguments on a day when we are mourning the loss of outstanding folks who have served our country very well," Obama said. "I think at this point, probably the best thing to do would be to refer the questions about Mr. Romney's comments to the Romney campaign."

A clip of the interview starts at 1:30, and the Romney comments are around the 5:30 mark:

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By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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