President Obama invoked the founding generation of American politicians to defend his negative campaigning before predicting that he will get the economy “going full guns.”

“And this phase of the campaign I think you’re seeing a lot of negative ads and a lot of contrast ads — although when people start saying how terrible it is,” Obama said during a fundraiser at the NoMad Hotel in New York City, “I just have to remind them [to] take a look at what Jefferson and Adams had to say about each other, and democracy has always been pretty rough and pretty messy.” (“Contrast ad” is the Obama campaign’s preferred term for their hits on Romney).