Former Obama administration official Steve Rattner said Jonathan Gruber was "the man" putting together Obamacare, contradicting President Obama's statement that Gruber was merely "some advisor who never worked on our staff."
"If you go back and look at the Washington Post or the New York Times or anything from that period, you will find Jonathan Gruber's name all over it," Rattner said. "Someone who's a leading expert on health care, quoted by everybody, as someone who the White House was using."
Rattner told Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski that the administration's response to Gruber's statements do not line up with the reality of his central role in designing the unpopular health care law.
"I remember that when I was in the White House he was certainly viewed as an important figure in helping to put Obamacare together," Rattner. "The problem is not that Gruber helped them put Obamacare together, because he was the man, the problem is what he's said in the last two weeks and how the White House has handled it."