Thursday, December 20, 2007

Romney's Lies About Martin Luther King Jr.

Here's a fun one. Mitt Romney has said several times "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King." Here's a clip of him saying it, on December 6, 2007 at the George H. W. Bush Library in Houston, TX. Here's another You Tube clip of him on Meet The Press saying "My dad marched with Martin Luther King".

The Boston Phoenix in Was it all a dream? "can find no evidence that the senior Romney actually marched with King, nor anything in the public record suggesting that he ever claimed to do so."

"Mitt Romney’s campaign told the Phoenix that it took place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan...But that account is incorrect. King never marched in Grosse Pointe, according to the Grosse Pointe Historical Society"

Yesterday Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, said "He was speaking figuratively, not literally". WTF?!? How do you interpret "I saw my father" figuratively? What else has he said that we should interpret figuratively? And was the campaign's previous statement that his happened in Grosse Pointe also supposed to be taken figuratively?

And how does that relate to the fact, "Nor did Mitt Romney ever previously claim that this took place, until long after his father passed away in 1995 — not even when defending accusations of the Mormon church’s discriminatory past during his 1994 Senate campaign."

Then again, he could just be emulating Ronald Reagan. This reminds me of the story he told in 1983 to the real Congressional Medal of Honor Society about a B-17 pilot getting the award posthumously for going down with the plane with a trapped ball-turret gunner. The problem was, it wasn't true, it never happened. Apparently the story came from the 1944 movie Wing and a Prayer. Should you tell people with real medals of honor about figurative ones? I didn't think so.

Presidential candidates making up stories about their parents to show how committed they are to causes, how surprising. I also assume that Romney getting chocked up on Meet the Press was also figurative.

Update: a grassroots Romney site says yes he did march. Though if you look at the quotes and facts they've assembled it's not at all clear. It seems King marched in June and Romney in July. There are other things saying George Romney did a lot for civil rights, but no one is disputing that. What people are disputing is stories Mitt Romney is telling.

5 comments:

Taylor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Taylor said...

Actually new blogs make it appear that some people went and researched and found out that Romney senior did march at MLK rallies. The only evidence that people are using to say romney did not march with MLK is, they can't find any. Don't call someone a liar when it seems everyone, even reporters remember him marching with MLK. Mitt was only a young teenager when this happened.
Put yourself in Mitts shoes. You're a teenager. You remember your dad marching in causes that MLK was the leader of. Everyone tells you that he did. Even reporters report that he did. After 40 years see if you believe that your father marched "with" MLK. Then someone picks up on your comment and calls you a liar.

Howard said...

I'd appreciate citations of the research you claim.

"The only evidence that people are using to say romney did not march with MLK is, they can't find any" isn't true. Read the first article I linked to.

"Everyone" doesn't remember Romney marching with MLK, reporters or not. And since when do politicians believe reporters?

You're assuming Mitt really believes it. If so, then what about the claim that he never mentioned it before his father died?

The Dad said...

Seems like a perfectly cromulent claim if taken figuratively. "I saw my father march with MLK" is just like me saying, "I see you, Howard, owning your own island."

:-)

Howard said...

Hopefully that's prescient