Mitt Romney Tried to Rig NAACP Crowd by Flying in His Own African Americans

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:41 pm

According to NAACP official Hilary Shelton, Mitt Romney tried to rig the crowd at the convention by flying in his own non-member African Americans to cheer for him.

After getting booed at the NAACP convention today, Mitt Romney headed straight for the sweet embrace of Neil Cavuto and Fox News to try and spin away the pain.

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Here is the video:

Romney said, “I spoke with a number of African-American leaders after the event and they said, you know a lot of folks don’t want to say they’re not going to be voting for Barack Obama, but they’re disappointed in his lack of policies to improve our schools. Disappointed in urban policies, disappointed in the economy. 14.4% rate of unemployment among African-Americans today. The president has not been able to get the job done. People want to see someone who can get the economy going, so I expect to get African-American votes.”

Romney also claimed that he got a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

Many of Romney’s claims were debunked by Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy and the Director of the Washington Bureau of the NAACP, Hilary Shelton who said that the only African Americans Romney met with after his speech were those that he brought with him. Mr. Shelton explained that Mitt Romney flew in his own African-American supporters who were not affiliated with the NAACP, in order to have some people in the crowd cheering for him.

Here’s the video from MSNBC:

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Romney did not meet with any of the convention rank and file after his speech, and only met with the African-Americans that he planted in the crowd.

This isn’t the first time that Mitt Romney has had to bring his own supporters with him. On numerous occasions during the Republican primary the Romney campaign bused in Mormon college students to fill out the candidate’s crowds.

It is hard to believe that same crowd who booed Romney for 15 seconds would give him a standing ovation at the end of his speech. Mitt Romney is thoroughly incapable of telling the truth, but it is amazing how brazen the Romney people are. They actually tried to trick America into thinking that African-Americans will support Romney by stashing plants in the audience.

Mitt Romney’s NAACP appearance has gone from a disaster to an insult to African-Americans and voters everywhere. Things just keep getting worse for Romney.

Note: Video from The Ed Show was added at 9:22 PM ET.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association