Reid aide: Dems paid price for HealthCare.gov disaster

A top aide to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Obama administration’s failure to properly launch HealthCare.gov last year dragged down vulnerable Democrats Tuesday night.

Reid chief of staff David Krone delivered a blistering assessment of the White House’s involvement in the midterm cycle, suggesting that officials were not interested in making moves vital to protecting the Democratic majority in the Senate.

{mosads}Krone also appeared to blame the administration for crises that weighed down Democratic incumbents by association.

“No member of the Democratic caucus screwed up the rollout of that healthcare Web site,” Krone told the Washington Post, “yet they paid the price — every one of them.” 

The interview signaled Reid’s anger with Tuesday night’s results: Republicans won control of the Senate for the first time in eight years, taking down nearly every vulnerable target across the map.

Krone’s comments are part of the first round of reckoning between Senate Democrats and the White House following the defeats. From the Senate side, relationships appear quite cold.

“I don’t think that the political team at the White House truly was up to speed and up to par doing what needed to get done,” Krone told the Post.