Mitt Romney was booed Wednesday at the NAACP conference for promising to repeal the president's signature health care reform law, bringing him to an awkward halt in the middle of an otherwise civilly-received pitch for black voters.
It was an awkward moment that forced him to go off script, after giving a somewhat pained smile as the booing continued.
"I'm going to eliminate every non-essential, expensive program I can find, that includes Obamacare, and I'm going to work to reform and save --" Romney said before being interrupted for about 15 seconds.
"You know, there was a survey of the Chamber of Commerce -- they carried out asurvey of their members, about 1,500 surveyed, and uh, they asked them what effect Obamacare would have on their plans, and three-quarters of them said it made them less likely to hire people," he said when the booing stopped. "So I say, again, that if our priority is jobs, and that's my priority, that's something I'd change and replace."
In a closed-door speech to donors at a private home in Florida on Sunday,
Mitt Romney was unusually candid about his policy plans, offering details about
what he expects to implement if elected president in November.
According to NBC News, the former Massachusetts governor said he may
decide to eliminate several government agencies, including the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which was once led by his father, George
Romney.
"I'm going to take a lot of departments in Washington, and agencies, and
combine them. Some eliminate, but I'm probably not going to lay out just exactly
which ones are going to go," Romney said. "Things like Housing and Urban Development, which my
dad was head of, that might not be around later."
Although Romney refused to make specific calls about each agency, he did
suggest that the Department of Education would see major changes under a Romney
presidency.
"I will either consolidate with another agency, or perhaps make it a heck of
a lot smaller," Romney said. "I'm not going to get rid of it entirely,"
explaining that to do so could be a political pitfall and would eliminate a way
to push back on powerful teacher unions.
Romney also acknowledged the key role those unions will have on the election,
since many of them have pledged support for President Barack Obama.
"The unions will put in hundreds of millions of dollars," Romney said.
"There's nothing like it on our side."
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney walked onstage without
any assistance and spoke for an hour and 15 minutes without seeming to tire in his first public
engagement since he
underwent a heart transplant three weeks ago.
He sat in a plush chair throughout the long chat with daughter Liz Cheney and
looked decidedly healthier than recent appearances where he has been gaunt and
used a cane.
Cheney even threw in a couple of political plugs amid much reminiscing at the
Wyoming Republican Party state convention in Cheyenne on Saturday.
He said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is going
to do a "whale of a job." He said it's never been more important than now to
defeat a sitting president and the Republican Party should unite behind
Romney.
"He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country," Cheney said of
President Barack Obama.
The Wyoming Republican Party chose 14 delegates Saturday to this summer's
Republican National Convention and all of them are committed to support Romney.
The state will send a total of 29 delegates to the RNC.
Cheney's heart transplant in Virginia on March 24 initially canceled his trip
to the state party convention but he got last-minute medical clearance to
go.
"I'm not running any foot races yet but it won't be long," he said.
He owed a "huge debt" to the unknown donor of his new heart, he said, and to
medical technology. He did not take the opportunity to weigh in on health care
politics.
Campaigning in Puerto Rico, Mitt Romney is refusing to back off criticism of
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
The justice, nominated by President Barack Obama
in 2009, is beloved by local Democrats and Republicans as the high court's first
member of Puerto Rican descent.
"In looking at Justice Sotomayor, my view was her philosophy is quite
different than my own and that's the reason why I would not support her as a
justice for the Supreme Court," Romney said. "I would be happy to have a justice
of Puerto Rican descent or a Puerto Rican individual on the Supreme Court, but
they would have to share my philosophy, that comes first."
The issue puts Romney at odds with a majority of local voters and his most
prominent Puerto Rican supporter, Gov. Luis Fortuno. It also underscores the
challenges facing Republican candidates as they bring popular conservative
rhetoric to an area packed with Hispanic voters ahead of Sunday's GOP president
primary.
Beyond Sotomayor, Romney and his rival Rick Santorum have supported the
conservative push to formalize English as the official language across the
country. In Puerto Rico, an American territory that will vote on its political
status, including statehood on Nov. 6, most residents speak Spanish as their
primary language.
Santorum made headlines earlier in the week after suggesting that Congress
would require Puerto Rico to adopt English as the official language as part of
its quest for statehood, a dominant political issue here.
With the Republican presidential nomination still up in the air, the
possibility of a brokered convention is looking
increasingly likely. Under the party’s rules, the delegates won by Mitt
Romney, Rick Santorum, and the others in the primaries and caucuses are
obligated to vote for their assigned candidate only on the first ballot. If no
candidate wins the required number of votes, the delegates can throw their
support to anyone. There’s speculation that party insiders, unhappy with the
current field, might float the candidacy of someone not now in the race, like
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie or Jeb Bush.
When Honduran-born Antonella Cecilia Packard converted to the Mormon Faith 20
years ago, she said it was like "coming home."
The Catholic-educated Packard, who grew up in "the middle of Mayan ruins,"
appreciated the faith's strong sense of family and conservative values. She also
saw her own history in the Book of Mormon with stories of migrations, tragedies
and triumphs of a people many Mormons believe are the ancestors of some
present-day Latinos.
But two decades after her conversion while a college student at Mississippi
State, the 43-year-old Packard finds herself on a new mission: defeating Mitt
Romney and any Mormon politician who betrays what she sees as a basic Mormon
principle of protecting immigrants.
As Romney continues to seek the Republican presidential nomination while
rarely discussing his faith, a growing number of vocal Hispanic Mormons say they
intend to use Mormon teachings as a reason to convince others not to vote for
him. They have held firesides (equivalent to a tent revival) on immigration,
protested outside of Romney campaign events and have traveled across state lines
to help defeat other Mormon politicians with similar harsh immigration
stances.
"Yes, we are happy that we have a Mormon running for president," said
Packard, a Saratoga Springs, Utah, resident and member of Somos (We are)
Republicans. "But a lot of us aren't supporting him because of his stance
against immigrants."
Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff Paul Babeu, a Republican congressional candidate,
stepped down on Saturday from his position as the Mitt Romney campaign's Arizona
co-chair, in the wake of explosive allegations that Babeu threatened a Mexican man,
who claims to be his ex-boyfriend, with deportation.
"Sheriff Babeu has stepped down from his volunteer position with the campaign
so he can focus on the allegations against him," Romney campaign spokeswoman
Andrea Saul confirmed
in an email to The Huffington Post. "We support his decision."
In a press conference on Saturday, Babeu said the allegations are false but
confirmed that he is gay, something he had not previously
discussed.
Newt Gingrich
had a message for rivals Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney at a campaign event in
his native Georgia Friday: bawk bawk bawwwk.
After two people dressed in chicken suits entertained the crowd, holding a
sign reading "I'm Chicken to Debate Newt," Gingrich hit his rivals for backing
out of a CNN-sponsored debate that had been scheduled for March 1 but was
canceled after Santorum, Romney and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said they would not
attend.
"I'm going to ask them to reconsider and come to Georgia. It'll be just
fine," Gingrich told an audience of about 400 gathered in an airplane hangar in
Peachtree City for an evening rally. "We'll be hospitable, and frankly there's
something wrong when someone tries to buy their way to the presidency."
The frequently cash-strapped Gingrich campaign has relied heavily on his
solid performances in the national televised events. After the event, talking
with reporters, Gingrich said, "All I can tell you is that the average Georgian
and the average Ohioan is going to say, 'Let me get this straight, they're not
willing to come here to debate but they want my vote?'"
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum clashed with Tacoma Occupy
protesters Monday night during his first visit to a state he said would be a
"momentum changer" heading into Super Tuesday.
Minutes into Santorum's speech, protesters began chanting and shouting. They
rarely stopped over the next half-hour.
"I think it's really important to understand what this radical element
represents," Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, told hundreds of
supporters gathered outside the Washington Historical Museum. "What they
represent is true intolerance."
The Somali-born, Canadian-raised rapper did not give the
potential Republican candidate permission to use his hit record.
K'naan let his displeasure be known later that day
on Twitter:
K’naan chatted with GlobalGrind the next day and we asked him
specifically about the Romney situation. This is what he said:
"The dude is really the antithesis of what I write for. He’s
talking about shutting the gate on immigration. The guy has no clue about
anything to do with foreign policy. The latest thing he just said was that he’s
not concerned for 'the very poor.' It’s kind of everything I come from that he’s
against. Yet, he uses the benefit of my experience in his victory, which is
really odd.
"The people who use my song, for whatever political concept,
the views around have to fit with the nature of the song. Not necessarily even
me. But the songs have ethics of their own. And so, I feel like the song is
offended."
Mitt
Romney secured an overwhelming victory in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, giving
the former Massachusetts governor his second consecutive win of the year as he
tightened his claim to dominant front-runner status in what had been a turbulent
Republican presidential race.
After his
easy victory in Florida on Tuesday, Romney’s win in Nevada, where he also
emerged on top four years ago, will provide additional momentum heading to
Tuesday’s caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and set him up for more significant
primaries in Michigan and Arizona at the end of the month. The outcome will
increase pressure on his rivals to demonstrate how and where they plan to stop
him, if they can.
Turnout was far below that of the primaries in Florida, South Carolina or New
Hampshire and less than in Iowa’s caucuses.
Romney was far ahead of his closest rivals. Former House speaker Newt
Gingrich and Rep. Ron
Paul (Tex.) were battling for second place. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick
Santorum was running fourth. Counting in Clark County was extremely slow
late Saturday, delaying final results.
Addressing cheering supporters in Las Vegas, Romney largely ignored his
opponents and focused on President Obama’s handling of the economy. “America
needs a president who can fix the economy because he understands the economy,”
he said. “I do and I will. This president began his presidency by apologizing
for America. He should now be apologizing to America.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on Wednesday that he's "not
concerned about the very poor," citing the social safety net in place for that
segment of the populace and adding that he's focused on the middle class.
"I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the
very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it," the
Republican front-runner said Wednesday on CNN, following his victory in the Florida primary. "I'm not concerned about the
very rich, they're doing just fine. I'm concerned about the very heart of the
America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are
struggling."
American's Poorest Cities That Romney Don't Care About
Marvin Perkins says God led him to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints — but friends advised otherwise.
“Mormons, they’re prejudiced against blacks,” Perkins recalls being told.
Until 1978, the LDS church banned men of African descent from its priesthood,
a position open to nearly all Mormon males and the gateway to sacramental and
leadership roles. The church had also barred black men and women from temple
ceremonies that promised access in the afterlife to the highest heaven.
As he explored joining the church in 1988, Perkins said he asked Mormons near
his Los Angeles home about the racial doctrines. They gently explained that
blacks were the cursed descendants of Cain, the biblical murderer, he
recalls.
“Let’s say you have this powerful witness of God telling you that this church
is truly of him,” said the 48-year-old salesman and video producer. “And then
the people in that church lovingly tell you that you are cursed. How do you
reconcile those two things?”
On the eve of the South Carolina primary, everyone is wondering if, come
Monday, the GOP will have its candidate. This is the time where a powerful
endorsement or two could either push Romney over the line or give him a serious
run for his money (disadvantage: Romney in the latter case, as he's never had to
run for money before and will most likely pull something).
One powerful group has seized this opportune time to throw their support
behind a candidate, and it could shake up the election more than any other
endorsement to date.
After all, to lead the future, you need the future's vote. And there's only
one candidate with the credentials to get it. Check out our exclusive video
above and let us know what you think it means for the election in the
comments.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- It was telling that as soon as the Republican
presidential debate ended here Monday night, Newt Gingrich made a beeline to
talk to reporters.
Gingrich, the recently embattled, always controversial and irascible former
speaker of the House from Georgia, had just watched a massive crowd inside the
convention center respond to him with a passionate standing ovation after his confrontation with one of the debate's moderators.
The exchange lit a fire underneath the crowd, and in so doing seemed to
increase his chances of gathering momentum ahead of Saturday's primary in South
Carolina.
"It's the only time I've ever seen a standing ovation, certainly in the
debates I've been involved," Gingrich told reporters after the debate in an area
set aside for the press. "There was a spontaneous sense that somebody finally
had the courage to just tell the truth about how we've got to go about helping
people, and the fact that I was very clear."
He was referring to his unapologetic and provocative dispute with debate
moderator Juan Williams, after Williams confronted him over his comments earlier this winter that poor children in
low-income neighborhoods should be given janitorial work in local schools.
"Can't you see that this is viewed at a minimum as insulting to all
Americans, but particularly to black Americans?" asked Williams.
Gingrich replied flatly: "No, I don't see that." The crowd erupted
approvingly.
Gingrich talked about his daughter "doing janitorial work at 13," and another
young man who started a doughnut company at age 11. He said that New York City
could "hire 30-some kids to work in the school for the price of one janitor, and
those 30 kids would be a lot less likely to drop out."
"They'd be getting money, which is a good thing if you're poor. Only the
elites despise earning money," Gingrich said, as the audience roared its
approval.
Williams came back at Gingrich, asking the former speaker if his comments had
been "intended to belittle the poor and racial minorities." The crowd, most of
it white, booed Williams loudly.
Gingrich channeled resentment felt by some whites about political correctness
with a salvo aimed at President Obama, followed by a high-minded summary of his
own ideals.
"First of all, Juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food
stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history," Gingrich said.
"Now, I know among the politically correct you're not supposed to use facts that
are uncomfortable."
Gingrich then brought up the run-down neighborhoods and schools along the
planned I-73 highway, known as the "corridor of shame," as an example of what he
said was President Obama's lack of action on behalf of low-income public
neighborhoods. He said that while Obama visited
the area as a candidate for president, "they haven't done anything."
"So here's my point," Gingrich concluded. "I believe every American of every
background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness.
And if that makes liberals unhappy, I'm going to continue to find ways to help
poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn
someday to own the job."
It was time for a commercial, but as Fox News' Bret Baier tried to preview
the next segment, he could barely be heard above the roar of the crowd, shouting
its praise for Gingrich.
"When we come back -- they can't hear me, but I'll talk to you -- foreign
policy," Baier said.
It was a moment that will likely be dissected, debated and discussed for some
time: a black journalist being booed by an overwhelmingly white audience in a
deep South state on Martin Luther King Day, as a white candidate for president
talked about the work ethic in low-income, majority black neighborhoods. It's
hard to imagine a more charged few minutes in public life in recent memory.
HuffPost asked Williams in an email if the booing and the environment had
made him uncomfortable.
'No," Williams emailed back. "But the intensity of the exchange pumped up my
adrenaline. The questions are important and I was in the moment."
Gingrich, afterward, called it "the most interesting single moment all
evening ... because it goes to the heart of the liberal confusion."
He tried to make clear that he was not talking only about African
Americans.
"The right to pursue happiness belongs to every single American of every
background in every community, which includes Native American reservations in
the Dakotas. It includes poor people in the hills of West Virginia. It includes
small towns in South Carolina," Gingrich said.
But Gingrich also let on that he knew he and Williams were talking primarily
about the black community in America.
"On the one hand [Williams] really is worried about the fact that we have
very high African American unemployment and that we have pockets of poverty that
really aren't being addressed. He even critiqued the Obama administration for
not doing it," Gingrich said in the spin room. "On the other hand, when you
start addressing it with solid, old-fashioned American solutions: getting people
to work, building I-73, creating a corridor of opportunity to replace the
corridor of shame that Obama himself talked about three years ago, you suddenly
got-he was on, 'Gee isn't this inappropriate?' No!"
"Anything which helps people break out of poverty, and anything which helps
people to have an opportunity to get a job, to learn to go to work, to get a
better job, to learn to rise, is an enormous advantage," he said.
Gingrich's big moment overshadowed former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum,
his closest competitor in the only race that matters inside the GOP primary
right now: the contest to be Mitt Romney's top opponent and alternative for the
party's base. Santorum challenged Romney early in the debate over a TV ad run by
a super PAC supporting Romney, and caused the former Massachusetts governor to
break stride for a moment.
But Romney was able to wriggle free and for most of the night fended off
attacks and answered questions with his usual polish. His weakest moment came
when he gave a halting answer to the question as to whether he will release his
tax returns. It was unclear whether his answer indicated more of a willingness
to do so in April, or whether he was just dodging the question, but one Romney
adviser told The Huffington Post after the debate that it is likely he will in
fact release the returns.
Nonetheless, Romney is leading here in the Palmetto state in the most recent polls, and unless Gingrich can get a
massive boost of momentum from his performance and from another debate on
Thursday evening, he looks set to split the conservative vote with Santorum. If
that happens, and Romney is able to win the state, he will likely be treated as
the de facto nominee.
In that light, Gingrich's comments Monday night could be seen as a political
Hail Mary, as the clock ticks down to zero
.
