President Obama, who once called super PACs “a threat to democracy,” on Tuesday urged his supporters to contribute to the super PAC created to back his re-election, Priorities USA, saying he needs the outside fundraising group to compete against Republicans in the fall.
Obama’s campaign aides defended the president’s reversal. The super PACs, outside groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, are already playing an influential role in the Republican presidential primary and most certainly will be used against Obama in the fall, they said. To fight the “dangerous” flow of outside cash, they said, Obama needs to raise his own outside money.
