Anthony Weiner attends the game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors on November 3, 2012 in Brooklyn, NY. Credit: Getty Images
Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner was mocked on Thursday after he claimed that he coined the term “Obamacare.”
“[It’s] a term, by the way, that I coined and used proudly long before the administration decided it was a good idea,” Weiner had told The New York Times.
But the term was being used widely since 2007, The Daily News reports.
Republicans who were critical of the health care bill were the first ones to start calling it “Obamacare.” The White House despised the term until the 2012 election when they decided to embrace it, the News reports.
Weiner is not mentioned in any stories about Obamacare until 2009, according to the News. And he isn’t heard saying the term until 2011.
After much criticism and mockery for the claim on Thursday, a spokesman for Weiner clarified the comment.
“He did not mean that he was the first person ever to use the term, only the first on the left to embrace it unapologetically,” Barbara Morgan said.
“Up till then, the right had used the term as a pejorative,” she added. “He realized that running from the term was a mistake, and eventually so did the White House and the Obama campaign.”
