“My reaction, that was outrageous,” said Barack Obama's former campaign strategist. | Getty Axelrod calls on Dean to apologize for suggesting Trump uses cocaine

David Axelrod on Wednesday called on Howard Dean to apologize to Donald Trump for accusing him of being a cocaine user.

“My reaction, that was outrageous,” Obama's former campaign strategist said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “He, like Donald Trump, has refused to apologize for an outrageous statement. He really should.”


Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and presidential candidate, poked at Trump's persistent sniffing during the Monday night debate, tweeting, “Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?”

Dean, a medical doctor, then appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday and began by saying he would “never” diagnose someone through television.

He then defended the remark, saying, “I don’t think this is a ridiculous idea. Something funny was going on with Trump last night. Do I think it was cocaine? Probably not. But, you know, again, the sniffling, the grandiosity, the delusions, the pressured speech. You know, this guy has already proven himself to be unstable, the question is, why is he unstable?”

“There are plenty of ways and valid reasons to attack and critique Donald Trump, but that was a really — a really outrageous tweet,” Axelrod said. “And, you know, I don't think Howard Dean has done anything since the great scream in 2004 quite like this. He ought to pull that back."