Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:18 am
Obama has answered Mitt Romney’s demand for an apology over Joe Biden’s in chains remark by laughing in the Republican nominee’s face.
Earlier today the Romney campaign demanded yet another apology from President Obama because while discussing banking reform, Vice President Biden said, “Well let’s take a look. Because now we got a real clear picture of what they value. They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value, and look at their budget. And look what they’re proposing. Romney want to, he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules — unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”
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Video of Biden’s remark:
This remark caused the Romney faux “how dare you, sir,” outrage machine to go into overdrive. Obamacare supporter and Romney spokesperson, Andrea Saul said, “After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama Campaign has reached a new low. The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama Campaign will say and do anything to win this election. President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments.”
Notice that the Romney statement never claimed that what Biden said wasn’t true. The Romney campaign was trying to take sort of moral high ground while their silence on Biden’s point is a tacit admission that the vice president was right.
Obama Spokesperson Stephanie Cutter responded to the latest Romney apology demand by laughing in the Romney campaign’s face.
Video of Stephanie Cutter’s reaction to Romney’s latest apology demand:
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On Andrea Mitchell Reports, Cutter said, “I think he probably agrees with Joe Biden’s sentiments. He’s using a metaphor to talk about what’s going to happen. I appreciate the faux outrage from the Romney campaign. (Laughter). If you want to talk about the use of words then take a look at Mitt Romney’s stump speech where he basically calls the president un-American. So does Andrea Saul agree with that language?”
Mitchell followed up and asked Cutter if the president agrees with Joe Biden’s sentiments, but not his comments? Cutter replied, “The bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments. Those comments in the full context of them, and we can play a game with the Romney campaign about pulling things out of context. We saw how that ended up for them over the last couple of weeks. But what the vice president was talking about if you look at those remarks is that there is a consequence to repealing Wall Street reform. We’re going to go back to the days where they’re writing their own rules. We saw how that worked out. They crashed our financial system, and taxpayers had to pick up the pieces. And we don’t want to go back there.”
Here is how this works. The Romney campaign pulls something out of context, gets outraged, and then demands an apology. The Obama campaign then laughs at the Romney campaign, and uses the issue that they brought up with their outrage to hammer Romney.
In this case, the Romney campaign tried to attack the character of President Obama, but instead started a controversy that allowed Biden’s comments to played everywhere and the Obama campaign to hammer home the message that Mitt Romney wants to deregulate Wall Street.
I am not sure what this endless whining and apology demanding is designed to accomplish besides making Romney look weak. Their “outrage” over Biden’s remark makes no sense because it is the white Mormon who is upset by the running mate of the first African-American president making a remark about putting people in chains.
The Romney campaign has no counter message for Obama/Biden’s point that they want to deregulate Wall Street, so they are trying to create a scandal and a distraction.
Remember, when candidates and campaigns start asking for apologies, that means they are losing. While Romney the wimp is left crying and complaining, Barack Obama is marching towards a second term.
Update: The Obama campaign continued to tear into Romney with a statement calling the GOP nominee a hypocrite.
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
