Obama says he'll fight outside groups trying to 'simply purchase an election.' Obama digs in on super PAC switch

President Barack Obama on Tuesday offered his first defense of his reversal on super PACs, suggesting that his decision to reluctantly support one backing his reelection came down to the cold realities of the race.

“The challenge is we’ve got some of these super PACs that have pledged to spend up to half a billion dollars to try to buy this election and what I’ve said consistently is, we’re not going to just unilaterally disarm,” Obama said in an interview with Charlotte’s CBS affiliate, WBTV.


Obama’s comments come after his campaign announced last week that he had offered his support to Priorities USA Action, a super PAC run by some of his former White House aides. As of the end of 2011, the group had raised far less than the super PACs supporting Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

Though it would be his “strong preference” to “completely eliminate” super PACs, Obama said he’s unwilling to back down while his opponents still rely on millions of dollars pouring in.

“We’re not going to just let a whole bunch of folks who are not only self-interested but aren’t always disclosing what their contributions are to be able to simply purchase an election,” he said.

Just before his super PAC decision was announced, Obama said he had “worries” about the influence of the groups and opposed the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

On Tuesday, Obama reiterated that he’s still opposed to the ruling, which found that the Constitution does not limit the amount of money that corporations and unions can spend on political causes.

“We’re seeing some of the effects of it right now in the Republican primary,” he said. “I mean, you’ve got billionaires who are just writing checks for tens of millions of dollars and suddenly the entire dynamic of the election has changed, regardless of what voters’ preferences originally might have been.”