Obama strategist threatens to fire staff who smear Mitt Romney

President Obama's chief political strategist said staffers who attempt to smear rival Mitt Romney in the upcoming election risk being fired by the campaign.

In an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe, Obama strategist David Axelrod attempted to distance the president from a Politico story earlier this week that reported the Obama campaign is preparing to unleash a "ferocious personal assault" against Romney in coming months to paint him as "weird."

"Anyone who purports to be a source within the Obama camp who used that term and some of the other terms that were in that story according to unnamed sources should be ripped out of whoever's Rolodex considers them sources," Axelrod insisted. "That doesn't reflect our thinking. We have real legitimate differences with Mitt Romney."

Sources told Politico they planned to pick on everything from Romney's choice of denim to an odd story of the former governor strapping the family dog on top of the car during an old family vacation to highlight his awkwardness as a candidate. But some have wondered if "weird" was a code word aimed at trashing Romney's Mormon faith.

"Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney," a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House told Politico.

Romney's campaign called the plan "despicable" and "disgraceful."

But Axelrod insisted Friday the Obama campaign has no such plan and said the president and his allies won't focus on personal attacks. Asked if he would fire staffers who engaged in negative campaigning or tried to paint Romney as "weird," Axelrod replied, "I would."

"If someone used words like 'weird,' I would certainly do that," he said.

As Politico's Ben Smith, one of the authors of the original story, notes, Axelrod was quoted on the record in their piece about the Obama campaign's plans to go negative questioning Romney's awkwardness on the trail.

"There's a question of public character," Axelrod told Politico. "Are you principled, consistent--are you who you say you are? Can you be counted on … When he makes jokes about being unemployed or a waitress pinching him on the butt, it does snap your head back, and you say, 'What's he talking about?'"