May 10th, 2012

Rep. Cooper: Mourdock view is popular, but very dangerous

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) reacts to GOP senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s comments on compromise.

Rep. Cooper says, “Soledad, what Mourdock is saying is popular but it’s very dangerous. You have to compromise in order to build a great nation. Our nation was essentially founded on compromise and without that today we’re going to lose our credit rating again, we’re going to have more gridlock and really hurt our nation’s status as the world’s only superpower.”

“Well, we’ve got to have a compromise on the budget issues which are crushing our economy right now,” Cooper adds. “We have to have compromise on defense issues. We’ve got to figure out how to right size the defense budget. In virtually every area of government we have to have good people getting along and solving problems, not fighting each other. It’s not a question of combat in Washington. It’s a question of getting things done for voters back home working hard trying to put food on the table so fighting is very selfish. And what Mourdock is talking about is one-party rule. We’ve always had a two-party system in America. How we’ve gotten things done, a competition between the two parties.”

Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien airs weekday mornings from 7-9am ET on CNN.