Settle down, tough guy.

(ABC News) — President Obama admitted today that he was “very blunt” with congressional leaders during Wednesday’s deficit reduction negotiation, but denied walking out of the meeting abruptly.

“At the end of the meeting, what I said to the group was what the American people feel, which is we have a responsibility to do the right thing. We shouldn’t be overly partisan. We shouldn’t be posturing. We should solve problems,” the President said in a White House interview with COX Television’s WSB-TV. “I think maybe some people were surprised by how blunt I was.”

In a separate interview with CBS’ KYW-TV, Philadelphia, Obama explained that he took a “very blunt” tone with the leaders “based on what I’ve been seeing over the last five days.”

“What we haven’t seen is an acknowledgement that if we’re serious about solving the problem, then everybody’s got to compromise a little bit. People have dug themselves into these very deep holes,” Obama told KYW’s Chris May.