The Hill News

Former White House senior advisor David Axelrod defended the formation of two liberal political fundraising that take advantage of tax loopholes to raise unlimited and undisclosed funds. He said the groups are necessary to counter similar conservative groups like Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads, which have spent large sums in previous elections.

Axelrod said Democrats were simply fighting fire with fire because there was no other option.

"I don't think this is healthy, I don't think this is good," Axelrod said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "But this is the system we have."

In response to criticism that Democrats were acting hypocritically by decrying the conservative groups then forming ones of their own, Axelrod said that Democrats tried to pass a law that would have required these groups to disclose their donors but it narrowly failed in the senate. 

"This independent group that was formed was formed in response to the ones th! at spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last campaign to defeat Democratic candidates of undisclosed large contributions," Axelrod said. "And we tried to pass a law through the Congress that would force them to disclose -- all groups to disclose who was giving them the money so the public could see."

"It got 59 Democratic votes in the United States and 41 Republicans blocked it. And so of course, now there is a reaction to it because the Democrats are saying, we can't play with two sets of rules," Axelrod continued.

The formation of Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action was the only option left, he said.

"We can't play under two sets of rules," Axelrod said.

Axelrod said that groups are a direct response to groups like Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads which, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Democrats in the 2010 midterms.

In the past Democrats and Obama have criticized those conservative! groups for having an unchecked influence over elections.

A dditionally, Axelrod echoed a statement by the Obama administration made on Friday when Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action were unveiled.

According to White House press secretary Jay Carney, Obama has not changed his stance on groups like Priorities USA and Crossroads GPS, which is that they should be required to disclose their donors.

--This story was updated at 1:07 p.m.