Obama Goes After Rush Limbaugh (UPDATE: Limbaugh Responds!)

UPDATE 1:26 p.m. ET – Limbaugh responded Friday to President Obama’s claim that he is responsible for Washington gridlock.

“He has got to blame someone,” Limbaugh said:

“Nobody’s listening to Obama anymore,” he continued. “He’s going back to the ‘Greatest Hits.’”

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Rush Limbaugh and President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama in an interview Friday with CNN’s Chris Cuomo blamed Washington gridlock on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

The president added that most Congressional Republicans are against the idea of defunding the Affordable Care Act, but, again, they’re too afraid to say so because of Limbaugh.

“Congress doesn’t have a whole lot of core responsibilities,” the president said. “One core responsibility is passing a budget, which they have not done yet. The other core responsibility that they’ve got is to pay the bills that they’ve already accrued.”

Once Congress takes care of its core responsibilities, he continued, it can take on bigger “structural changes.”

“How much of the lack of action in Washington do you put on yourself in terms of blame?” the CNN reporter asked.

“Ultimately the buck stops with me,” Obama replied. “I get frustrated, and I’ve said before and I continue to say I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get Congress — and Republicans in Congress in particular — to think less about politics and party and think more about what’s good for the country.”

He continued, explaining how proposals to defund Obamacare are bad for America.

“I’ve made this argument to my Republican friends privately, and, by the way, sometimes they say to me privately, ‘I agree with you, but I’m worried about a primary from, you know, somebody in the tea party back in my district’ or, ‘I’m worried about what Rush Limbaugh is going to say about me on radio,’” he said.

It's worth noting this isn't the first time President Obama has blamed Washington inaction on Limbaugh.

"I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them," the president said in 2012.

"And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government," he added.

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(H/T: Mediaite).