FIRST BITES: MITT ROMNEY ON “MEET THE PRESS”
September 8, 2012 -- NBC’s “Meet the Press” has released two excerpts of David Gregory’s exclusive interview with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, available for immediate use. Below are video links, transcripts, and still photos.
For this wide-ranging, in-depth interview, Gregory spoke with Gov. Romney at length over the course of two days. On Friday evening, Ann Romney joined them on the campaign bus as they rode to a rally in Nashua, NH. On Saturday morning, Gregory and Gov. Romney sat down for a longer one-on-one interview at Romney’s campaign headquarters in Boston, MA.
The extended interview will air Sunday on “Meet the Press;” all content will be available online at WWW.MEETTHEPRESSNBC.COM.
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MANDATORY CREDIT: NBC News “Meet the Press”
Romney on Former President Bill Clinton’s DNC Address
Friday Interview on Campaign Bus
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EMBEDDABLE VIDEO: HTTP://NBCNEWS.TO/OWYXZ4
DAVID GREGORY: What about Bill Clinton? He had quite an impact. Do you think he could get elected today for president?
MITT ROMNEY: You know, if the constitution weren't in his way, perhaps. But I don't know the answer to that. But he did stand out in contrast with the other speakers. I think he really did elevate the Democrat convention in a lot of ways. And frankly, the contrast may not have been as-- as attractive as Barack Obama might have preferred if he were choosing who'd go before him and who'd go after.
Romney on Defense Spending and Sequestration
Saturday Interview at Campaign HQ
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EMBEDDABLE VIDEO: HTTP://NBCNEWS.TO/PSGBBB
MITT ROMNEY: Well, I want to maintain defense spending at the current level of the GDP. I don't want to keep bringing it down as the president's doing. This sequestration idea of the White House, which is cutting our defense, I think is an extraordinary miscalculation in the wrong direction.
DAVID GREGORY: Republican leaders agreed to that deal to the extend the debt ceiling.
MITT ROMNEY: And that's a big mistake. I thought it was a mistake on the part of the White House to propose it. I think it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it. The president was responsible for coming out with specific changes they'd make to the defense budget. It was supposed to have come out this last week. He has violated the law that he in fact signed. The American people need to understand how it is that our defense is going to be so badly cut.
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"I thought it was a mistake on the part of the White House to propose it. I think it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it. The president was responsible for coming out with specific changes they'd make to the defense budget. It was supposed to have come out this last week. He has violated the law that he in fact signed. The American people need to understand how it is that our defense is going to be so badly cut."
And you let this pass? You didn't question these statements?
These are not truthful -- where is the journalism?
Last month, 380,000 American's mysteriously became classified by
Obama's Department of Labor as no longer participating in the workforce -- Or those whom have given up on finding a job... Think about that!
How does the Dept. of Labor know that someone has given up on working? They don't! The benefit to Obama is that although his jobs creation programs are anemic, by reducing the amount of workforce participants, the unemployment number dropped from 8.3 to 8.1%. This has been going on since Obama took office!!! So far since Obama took
office, the Obama Administration has determined that over 9 million Americans have simply given up looking for jobs... Figure that one out! When we pierce through this statistical smoke and mirrors and factor back in those 9 million jobless whom the government has defined out of existence, then the true unemployment rate is 19.9% and rising, and not 8.3% and falling.
Hell, at the beginning of 2012 was one of the worst months in US
history, with a total of 2.3 million people losing jobs or leaving the
workforce in a single month. Yet, the official unemployment rate showed a decline from 8.5% to 8.3% in January - and was such cheering news that it set off a stock rally. How can there be such a stark contrast between the cheerful surface and an underlying reality that is getting worse?
Unemployment didn't drop from 8.3% to 8.1% as Obama and Biden have been bragging. The just cooked the numbers... Evidence? Use your common sense! Do you really believe that 9 million Americans have actually left the workforce and decided not to look for jobs any longer?
Every single month, hundreds of thousands of job seekers leave the economy. Most of that is due to retirement. None of it is due to "cooking the books." This has been true for the entire time "unemployment" has been a Dept. of Labor statistic. If you want to see a far better example of "cooking the books" consider the fact that the Bush administration (i) left two wars out of the budget and out of the deficit (something Obama ended, which has added greatly to the deficit for which Republicans falsely blame Obama), and (ii) hid a recession that had been underway for almost a year from the voting public. Those are facts. Of course, facts don't matter in the alternative universe he GOP is trying to create. But they do matter to a majority of voters, which is why Obama got a hefty bounce out of his convention, and why Romney didn't (and won't).
Daniel,
Thank you for that information, you are correct in the rate of unemployment going down, but it's all based on calculations of WHOSE COLLECTING UNEMPLOYMENT.
If they've been collecting for as long as they can, and can't collect anymore, they get dropped off of unemployment. Which reduces the number of "Unemployed" which again reduces the percentages.
This has been going on FOR MANY YEARS EVEN BEFORE OBAMA.
David Gregory is a fool who said, last year, that is not his job to fact check. Gregory said if viewers want to fact check they can -- but it isn't his job.
Also, Gregory was keynote speaker at a GOP Fundraiser with Karl Rove this year.
It is no surprise that Gregory lets Romney lie
David Gregory since you refuse to hold your guests accountable for speaking the Truth you have been rated the worst talking head in the country -- even worse than GlennDUH Beck
For your readers:
When Mitt said President Obama was violating the law, Mitt was LYING ... again.
Mitt Romney in
his own words:
"I believe
that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and
support it."
"Roe v. Wade has gone too far."
"I don't line up with
the NRA."
"I'm a member of the [NRA]."
"I like mandates. The
mandates work."
"I think it's unconstitutional on the 10th Amendment front."
"I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose."
"I never
really called myself pro-choice."
"I saw my father march with Martin
Luther King."
"I did not see it with my own eyes."
"I supported the
assault weapon ban."
"I don't support any gun control legislation."
"I think the minimum wage ought to keep pace with inflation."
"There's no question raising the minimum wage excessively causes a loss of
jobs."
"I will work and fight for stem cell research."
"In the end,
I became persuaded that the stem-cell debate was grounded in a false premise."
"I would like to have campaign spending limits."
"The American
people should be free to advocate for their candidates and their positions
without burdensome limitations."
"I'm a strong believer in stating your
position and not wavering."
"I changed my position."
"Detroit needs
a turnaround, not a check."
"I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that
this industry's come back."
"I'm not in favor of privatizing Social
Security or making cuts."
"Social Security's the easiest and that's because
you can give people a personal account."
"I'm not trying to return to
Reagan-Bush."
"Ronald Reagan is... my hero."
"I've been a hunter
pretty much all my life."
"Any description of my being a hunter is an
overstatement of capability."
"If Massachusetts succeeds in implementing
it, then that will be a model for the nation."
"What works in one state may
not be the answer for another."
"It was not my desire to go off and
serve in Vietnam."
"I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and
be representing our country there."
"It's a tax cut for fat cats."
"I believe the tax on capital gains should be zero."
"It's not worth
moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one
person."
"He's going to pay, and he will die."
"The TARP program...
was nevertheless necessary to keep banks from collapsing in a cascade of
failures."
"When government is... bailing out banks... we have every good
reason to be alarmed."
"These carbon emission limits will provide real
and immediate progress."
"Republicans should never abandon pro-growth
conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore."
"Those... paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a
process toward application for citizenship."
"Amnesty only led to more
people coming into the country."
"When I first heard of the Don't Ask,
Don't Tell policy, I thought it sounded awfully silly."
"Don't Ask, Don't
Tell has worked well."
- Mitt
Romney
And that's just for starters with "etch-a-sketch" Mitt. The press is not doing their job.
November 2011:
John Boehner (R) "I feel morally bound to accept the defense cuts if the supercommittee failed. “It was part of the agreement. And so either we succeed or we are in the sequester."
Romney LIES about sequester being Obama's decision:
Politico 2011 reported:
When John Boehner (R) President Barack Obama and Senator Reid cut a deal this summer to raise the nation’s debt limit, they created the supercommittee and charged it with finding between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion in deficit-reduction measures.
They [Boehner, Obama Reid TOGETHER] also put in place a process, called sequestration, that would force automatic cuts in 2013 if the supercommittee failed to hit its mark.
November 30, 2011
Boehner: “And I think having the sequester in place to ensure that we’re going to get our spending problem under control is a good thing."
From the WashingtonPost Nov 30, 2011
Boehner: “If you look at what happened to the supercommittee, it’s not a whole lot different than what happened in the conversations between President Obama and myself, and Senator Reid and Senator McConnell and myself later in the summer,”
Gregory lets Republicans lie.
Gregory should make full disclosure before any interview that his wife (and he?) donated to the Romney campaign. Didn't Keith Olbermnan get suspended for that by NBC??? If we want to watch right, or left, leaning programming we can stick with Fox and MSNBC. At least they are clear about what the support and don't pretend otherwise. Viewers expect the networks to be...or at least pretend to be... more impartial. I will be watching This Week on ABC instead.
Did he donate to the Romney campaign for real or are you being sarcastic?
It is TRUE
According the FEC:
Beth Wilkinson, David Gregory's wife, donated money to Romney/Ryan campaign.
David Gregory gets all this praise from host on MSNBC even though he's underservingly of it. I remember thinking how Tim Russert must be turning in his grave. I predict just based on those couple of clips that he's going to let Reverse Robinhood completely off the hook.
Sure he may appear to do a slight push back but it'll only be for show. I know many people who don't like him, because he's nothing but a wolf in sheep clothing. People really need to start calling him out and complaining to the network about him.
Dick Gregory needs to apply for a new job. Maybe at Fox. There, he can be himself. His current position is surely a conflict for him and it shows. Asking the right questions is not a strength for him.
When you watch the clip of David Gregory, not how he let's Romney speak with no interuptions, follow ups or rebuttals. When that video is over, the next clip is of David Gregory interviewing Sarah Fluke. Note the difference. He argues her points, disagrees with her statements, refutes her, and even tries to cut her off.
Thus far only FOX has been allowed to interview Romney, and we expect partiality there. It would have been great if an actual journalist had been given the opportunity to interview Romney instead of a friend, a man whose family donated to Romney's campaign.
From the sound bites, this doesn't seem like an interview. It appears that Romney has just received a free, prime-time, hour long ad.
It would be great to see some journalism and investigative reporting. Instead we're getting an infomercial.
Ok so I'm going to watch this episode for 10 minutes and I swear if David Gregory don't challenge him on anything and allowed this interview to be a platform for Mitt to continue his bumper sticker rhetoric and lies - I will personally start a boycott against "Meet the Press!"
Journalist are in fact responsible to making their interviewee accountable and if he doesn't do that - David is deminishing his platform!
David Gregory will never fill Tim Russert's shoes frankly. Russert would never have allowed Romney to get away with blatant lying.
After watching the RNC convention I'm convinced Romney and Ryan aren't the better ticket.
Furthermore, President Clinton solidified my choice after making the statement, "that no President could have fixed this MESS in 3 years." When you look at other countries in the world, America has done well to stay afloat. Our nation should have gone under, but, we made it this far and I believe we will rebound by the end of this year or early 2013.
Lastly, since the Republicans had one agenda to make Pres. Obama a one term President. They are the ones who should be booted out for fighting Pres. Obama and putting the economy on hold.
Obama & Biden 2012
The truth is the most uncomfortable thing for MITT ROMNEY, the KING OF BAIN: to confront. The man has spent 30 years pushing fort this brand of a man who is a turnaround artist rescuing companies. BUT, Private Equity Companies Do Not Exist to Turnaround Companies. Romny is a LIAR For those not inclined to digest the Romney PR Campaign of the Mormon Madoff, hook, line and sinker, I recommend that you read, "Greed & Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney & Bain Capital" you will come to realize how much 'Mitt Romney has a casual relationship with the truth.'
Hard hitting questions Gregory..."Do you think Clinton would be elected President?" Thats a tough one! I'm sure people have been waiting 3 years to ask him that. I hope you don't live up to your reputation of a**-kissing. ASK SOME TOUGH QUESTIONS...
If this is true about David Gregory giving money to Romney and Ryan campaign I will never truth him again to be objective. I will never watch Meet the Press anymore!
I think he needs to go to the Fox News where they tell lies all the time!
I hope David ask Mitt the Liar, some tough questions! If he doesn't I am sure his folks on MSNBC would like to know WHY!
I support Mitt and Ryan 100%; cutting military is wrong...Government only has three basic jobs, Protect the Constitution, Protect our border and our people (military), and tax anything else beyond that is unnecessary. WE MUST PROTECT AND DEFEND and we need a strong military and weapons to do so, and of course SHUTTING DOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WOULD BE ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS I WOULD DO!
I've got a #4......'and taking care of it's own people', right??? - Or am I alone in that thinking.
Why should there be poverty at all in what we so proudly boast as the Greatest Nation on Earth?
What's so wrong with the idea, that everyone gets a fair shot, not just a free hand out, but equal opportunity on an level playing field.
What's the point of protecting the Country if the Country doesn't take care of it's own people? And more importantly, doesn't protect and care for those who fight and even die for our freedom? You know, those people that weren't even an afterthought to Mitt Romney during the RNC speech he gave.
Sharon might like to read the Constitution and find out what it really says.
I count seven "jobs", of which military is only one, and "SHUTTING DOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION" is none. "We the People" includes immigrants, illegal or not, who are "the people" as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Note "provide for the common defence" is not necessarily military, especially since today's excessive military spending weakens the nation.
You will find anonymous paid shills on internet forums like this one and all the way through the power structure, from top to bottom.
Romney mentioned a Princeton study that justified his claim that his tax cut magic is somehow real. This states "increasing growth is the motivation for the proposal in the first place". It is not. The motivation is elsewhere and easily seen.
A cabal of the rich, including international capitalists, are funding Republican candidates and other spokesmen (e.g. Fox) to provoke civil unrest with national bankruptcy then Republican secession. Romney is certainly one of those international capitalists as are the paid stooges he mentioned in his interview- the Princeton and Harvard professors whose analyses are plainly gibberish, the WSJ which repeated the Harvard "study", and AEI which is a blatantly biased source.
Romney's overt obsession with boosting military spending (the only source of debt) and cutting taxes for the rich while cutting government services for everyone else can only lead to national bankruptcy, civil unrest, and Republican secession.
David Gregory is clearly a member of that cabal as well, as this interview and many other interviews prove.
There is a story on cbsnews.com dated 09/08/2012 about the sequestration and about how much pork is in the Pentagon budget - including studies on all kinds of non-military related subjects; $95 billion could be cut without affecting any direct defense or national security needs including equipment (tanks, planes, etc). They can count on their audience not knowing - to paraphrase Rumsfeld "There are known unknowns ...." and the soundbytes do such a good job of dismissing facts.
Romney just outright lied about the cost cutting of the prescription drug plan of Medicare--they drugs are full price thanks to Bush. David--where are u on correcting that blunder.
sorry--duplicate comment
Whew! WTH to start with this botched interview?
I think the failure of David Gregory as MTP moderator - especially in the light of his predecessor - can be summed up this way: "Not prepared enough" and "No Follow-Through".
There's just no gumption with David Gregory, to not allow factually inaccurate talking points to go unchecked, unchallenged.
I could go through this interview question by question and point-by-point, but it would be useless.
At any rate, I'm not just some average joe with an isolated opinion about how awful this MTP moderator is. This Huffington Post article asked an important question prior to the airing of today's sham of an interview.....
()
Your interview: Softballs to the two Romneys, pre-approved questions, nothing about their tax returns.
David, did you cut a deal for the exclusive chit-chat?
Note to NBC executives: Fire this loser and give the job to Karen Finney, like you should have in the first place.
My thoughts exactly. No pressure or even basic question about his refusal to release his tax returns. And pre-approved questions. Didn't know until I read it here that DG is in the R&R camp already. Tim Russert, where are you in our hour of need?
On Meet the Press this morning, 9/9/12, Romney said that under his administration, he would not raise taxes or cut them, but, that the middle class would not be required to pay tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. I don't know any middle class families who make enough money to even owe these taxes to begin with. Was anybody at the round table listening to this empty babble?
the middle class would not be required to pay tax on interest, dividends or capital gains
It's typical for Republicans to phrase tax cuts for the rich as middle class and small business or "job creating" unless you call middle class those earning over a quarter million a year or call Exxon a small business or call sending jobs to China "creating" jobs.
David, I would like to ask Mitt if he gives the wealthy a tax cut, first $2,000 a year for me and others does'nt compare to what Millionaries will get with the same cut. Middle classes is trivial to the life changing dollars they will get. 2nd. If he gives them the cut and it helps them keep millions what keeps them from saying "Oh yea I will create a 100 jobs at say $20 an hour to help the middle class with my tax savings" or behind closed doors, " Honey we will have an extra million next year from the tax savings and will just get more out of our existing employees, call it worker productivity and You can have that summer home you have been wanting. " If they do that what's is to keep them from doing that? I know people that are wealthy and that is exactly what they have said with a few drinks in them. What would you do to insure that does'nt happen? Come on, if you give me an extra million on my 100 million that makes me worth 101 million next year without having to earn it or give it to more employees. Would someone please ask that question.
Until David Gregory's interview of Romney this morning, I had planned to vote against the President in November. I am now voting for Romey. This will be the first time in years that I will vote for a candidate instead of against one. It's also the first time that I've heard a candidate (Romney) that I believe really cares about the country instead of himself. I don't want another President that has a personal agenda, and Party has nothing to do with my vote! I've voted on all sides, but I'm recharged (finally)! I don't ever agree with everything a candidate or his party proposes (and I don't now), but I truly believe that Romney cares more about this country than what party he is in.
You are completely full of it. Must be depressing to have to troll websites to prop up your failing candidate.
Be sure to click on user names to identify RNC paid representatives.
It's not like Texas was ever in Obama's corner anyway.
After viewing in on David Gregory's interview with Romney, I'm recharged. This is the first time in years that I feel that I can vote FOR somone instead of AGAINST a candidate. Party should have nothing to do with who we vote for because that's why we are in this mess. What I heard from Romney was that he really cares about the people of our great country instead of a personal agenda (like we are dealing with now and have been for almost 12 years). I don't agree with all of his opinions and I won't agree 100% with anyone, but... he's not proposing increase of taxes and he's not trying to cram a health care plan down our throats that we will be forced to pay for or be penalized. He isn't discounting all of the points of that health care plan, but will propose choices, and supports Medicare but with options. I wish my grandmother had those options. He wants to grow the economy instead of tax and, as far as Roe w Wade (of which I don't completely agree with him on), he's entitled to change his opinion.
What a sham of an interview! Gregory just gifted Romney with a veritable commercial. Indeed beloved Tim Russert is turning over in his grave.
Well I'm voting for the guy who is actually already the President and has already proven he cares deeply for this Country through policy, not rhetoric alone.
The president has shown resolve and commitment. He doesn't sway from one position to another, unlike Romney. And as I said, the proof is in action, not words alone.