Several weeks ago, I launched a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney falsehoods of the week. I was off last week, but let's get it started again.
Associated Press
1. Romney claimed President Obama "went before the United Nations" and "said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip."
True or false? The claim isn't even close to being right.
2. Romney said Democrats "passed Dodd-Frank," which "has made it almost impossible for community banks."
True or false? He's has said this before, and it's still completely untrue.
3. Romney continues to insist, "Our Navy is now smaller than any time since 1917."
True or false? It's one of his favorite talking points, but it's wildly misleading.
4. Romney boasted, "I did not inherit what my wife and I have, nor did she. What I was able to build, I built the old-fashioned way, by earning it, by working hard."
True or false? In reality, he inherited quite a bit from his wealthy, powerful parents.
5. Attacking Newt Gingrich, Romney said of House Republicans, "They also took a vote, and 88 percent of Republicans voted to reprimand the speaker, and he did resign in disgrace after that."
True or false? That's not really what happened.
6. Romney said, "We have $15 trillion of debt. We're headed to a Greece- type collapse, and he adds another trillion [dollars] on top for Obamacare and for his stimulus plan that didn't create private-sector jobs."
True or false? Our debt problem has no resemblance to Greece's; the Affordable Care Act reduces the debt; and the stimulus added millions of private-sector jobs.
7. Describing his state-based health-care law, Romney said, "At the time we crafted it, I was asked time and again, 'Is this something that you would have the federal government do?' I said absolutely not. I do not support a federal mandate."
True or false? Reality shows the exact opposite is true.
8. Going after Obama, Romney said, "[W]e shouldn't forget that for two years, this President had a Congress that could do everything he wanted."
True or false? Republicans love this, but it's plainly false.
9. Again commenting on Obama's record, Romney argued, "If you want to get the economy going, lower corporate tax rates. He's raised them."
True or false? It's one of the more transparent lies Romney has told.
10. Asked about his investments in Freddie Mac, Romney told Fox News, "My investments, of course, are managed not by me. For the last 10 years they've been guided and managed by a trustee, they're in a blind trust. And the trustee invested in mutual funds and so forth and apparently one of the funds had Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bonds."
True or false? He's lying again.
11. Romney argued, "I didn't get involved in politics early in my life," adding he didn't "politically involved" until after he ran the 2002 Olympics.
True or false? Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994. He might remember spending $7 million of his own money on the race.
12. Asked to explain his 1992 vote in a Democratic primary, Romney said, "I've never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot."
True or false? That's not only untrue, it's a story Romney has changed literally five times.
13. After winning the Florida primary, Romney argued, "On one of the most personal matters of our lives, our health care, President Obama would turn decision making over to government bureaucrats."
True or false? Even for Romney, this is kind of dishonesty is just brazen.
14. After receiving Donald Trump's endorsement yesterday, Romney, commenting on President Obama and the economy, said, "He's frequently telling us that he did not cause the recession, and that's true. But he made it worse."
True or false? Not only is the economy much stronger than it was, even Mitt Romney himself has repeatedly said the economy has improved since Obama took office.
Jon Chait noted last week that Romney appears to be "an audacious liar," adding, "Even by the standards of politicians, Romney seems unusually prone to dishonesty."
Given recent events, I'm hard pressed to disagree.
Leave a Comment:
Thanks for bringing this feature to the maddow blog! It's among my favorite that you do!
The GOP has absolutely nothing to complain about Obama for -- except veering the country away from the GOP's long (too long) rule over us. They hated Bill Clinton, too, but they saw nothing from Clinton to equal the immense successes of Obama in terms of traditional Democratic issues. Romney should be beginning to give everyone but his millionaire buddies the creeps.
Romney is speaking to the Fox audience who don't care about the truth nor do they listen to anyone with opposing facts and opinions. This audience will not heard a word that Obama says until it is filtered through Fox News. However, Romney is going to have serious credibility problems when he is forced to debate Obama because the president will be ready for the misrepresentations. In addition to credibility, Romney is bound to stumble over his own words because canned answers will go only so far in a debate.
Absolutely correct. Fox (GOP TV), and Clear Channel radio talkers in fact verify all of Romneys' lies. This is the problem with propaganda. People, and the media as a whole do not discuss this issue enough. The mainstream media has been bought up by huge corporations and monied interests over the last thirty years in a very organized conservative effort to distort the news in a right wing way. The great "liberal" media is one of these right wing media lies. Read Roger Ailes writings from 30+ years ago on the need to form a GOP TV network. Consider that Reagan fast tracked Rupert Murdochs U.S. citizenship so he could purchase massive portions and later controlling interest in FOX (and then coincidentally hire Ailes to run News Corp).
The whole "liberal" media movement was started by Rush Limbaugh who back in the eighties started misquoting a pair of journalists who wrote a book claiming that the FINANCIAL media was liberal. But Limbaugh quibbling is just business as usual as is Republican prevarication.
The myth of the "liberal media" goes back to Nixon who railed about the media. This was also part of his so called "Silent Majority" when there were Vietnam protests. Republicans have been beating the "liberal media" drum for so long that I am surprised that people buy this garbage.
You left out the one where he lied about the fate of his dog, Seamus!
Steve, very glad you decided to continue this at your new home.
It's is truly wonderous just why Mitt's nose hasn't grown as long as the wooden one on the face of Pinocchio! Shame on Willard, the Shameless Liar of America! -Kevo
He's just flexible...
http://oneway2day.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/mitt-romney-toon.jpg
Don't confuse people with the facts! The people who hate Obama for whatever reason will keep repeating these lies and slapping each other on the back for "knowing the REAL truth" about things. Yeah, right.
Mittocrisy - just another chapter in The Hypocrit's Manual.
This is brilliant...sharing on facebook!
Lying? Not exactly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_bull@!$%#
Republicans will absolutely NOT reduce the deficit.
Hopefully President Obama and other Democrats will play hard on the fact that Republicans have a very poor record on reducing the deficit. The R's are running on a shameless lie, that they have any real intention of reducing the deficit. This is the one that my conservative friends are all stuck on: we have to drive down the deficit. It's the big issue, yet the track record shows that deficits skyrocket under Republicans.
Their record on the deficit is bad, and when they get into office, they'll reduce taxes but won't pay down deficit. It'll all go towards corporate welfare.
I'd like to see this issue get more exposure. Do we have any nice graphs that correlate the deficit with various administrations?
If you ever watch any news channel besides fixed FOX bias news, almost every day the charts you do not seem to know about are presented.
I wish we could hold all the brazen liars accountable. Of course if we did Washington would rapidly depopulate.
I wish the truth or at least the counter argument would have been included in this list. It would have added to its veracity over Romney's mendacity, so to speak.
The counter is included in the links that appear in each of the examples.
Here's the latest - but in his defence, he wasn't really lying, just woefully, ignorant : http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mitt-romney-we-are-the-only-people-who-put-their
Of course, in a PolitiFact world, Romney's statements would be "Half True."
Here's the latest. However, in Romney's defence I don't think he's lying, just woefully ignorant : http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mitt-romney-we-are-the-only-people-who-put-their
Steve--Thank you so much for continuing this collection, which could be quite a valuable resource later this year. To the points you mention, you could add Paul Krugman's dismantling of Romney's statements and policies re "the very poor" in the New York Times today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/opinion/krugman-romney-isnt-concerned.html?hp
So lets get this straight. I was given nothing, I worked my way up from the "very poor" to be a multi-millionaire, and now I will lie without shame to be your president, at which time I will repeal everything that was put in place to protect you from my kind! VOTE!
Mitt Romney, born outside of the mainstream of American society, was able to overcome his humble beginnings and rise to be among the cream of the American middle class. Thru tireless work of his own, Mitt was able to overcome a non-supportive family and become just your average middle class quarter-billionaire.
Mitt strives to become president of the United States so that he can be a solid role model for all of the middle class wanting to have 23 off-shore accounts.
/yes this is snark
While "Chronicling Mitt's mendacity" is a really catchy title, I prefer "Listing Mitt's Lies".
As veracity and Mittens do not seem to have any familiarity with each other, with either title I appreciate the on-going feature!
Steve, thanks for going to work for Rachel. I now get to continue reading your excellent blogging and Ed Kilgore is doing a bang-up job with The Political Animal.
definitely three cheers for Ed and all hail Steve Benen!
It is unfortunate however that many people will listen to Mittie and believe every word he says!!!
My dad always drilled into my head that the Republicans were for the rich. That has really hit home to me with whats been happening here lately with the Republican Party. There is one politician that i can say that is beinng forthright with the American people and that is President Obama, he will have both my vote and my wifes vote in 2012 for sure.
In a scandal ignored by the mainstream media, President Obama quietly stacked the Department of Justice with campaign donors, issuing key posts to supporters who raised big bucks for his 2008 presidential campaign and are expected to collect more cash for his reelection.Additionally, the commander-in-chief rewarded dozens of big donors and fundraisers with lucrative federal contracts, stimulus cash and premium government jobs and ambassadorships. The chilling details were revealed this week in the expose of a journalism nonprofit that sorted through mountains of government records and campaign finance databases related to Obama's "mega donors," their businesses, employers and relatives.It reveals that, more than two years after taking office, nearly 200 of Obama's top donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, multi million-dollar federal contracts for their businesses or attended elite White House meetings and social events. This certainly contradicts the president's main campaign promise of eradicating the powerful forces of special interests in his administration.While this practice is rampant in politics and certainly quite common among U.S. presidents of both parties, Obama deserves extra scrutiny because he virtually guaranteed Americans that he would end it as part of his "change" revolution. Just enter the key words "special interests" on the White House web site and check out the president's ongoing rhetoric about reducing such damaging influences in Washington "on behalf of the American people."Among the more alarming examples listed in the investigative piece involves the DOJ, the agency that enforces the law, ensures public safety against foreign or domestic threats and defends the nation's interests. Obama appointed seven campaign bundlers to the DOJ, including Attorney General Eric Holder who raised $50,000 in 2008.A George Washington University law professor (Spencer Overton) who bundled at least half a million dollars was appointed principal deputy attorney general in the DOJ's Office of Legal Policy. Five other donors also landed jobs at the agency, including a Harvard buddy of Obama's who got the No. 3 DOJ policy job and a Georgia bond lawyer who became a deputy associate attorney general.At the Department of Energy, four fundraisers who gathered around $1.6 million have held staff jobs or advisory posts, according to the probe. A telecom executive (Donald Gips) who raised more than half a million dollars for Obama in 2008 became his White House hiring director before moving on to an ambassadorship in South Africa. His company also received millions of dollars in government stimulus contracts, according to the investigative news report.The story includes a number of other examples and a break down of information by donor. It also points out that many of the "Class of 2008" donors and bundlers are, of course, expected to gather more contributions for Obama's re-election, which could cost around $1 billion.
"Chilling" details? Laughable. All of this is standard, Grade "A" American politics, and it has been going on since the beginning of the Republic. Every President appoints supporters and ideological allies to key positions in his Administration. The fact that some were "bundlers" merely indicates that they were successful in getting friends and associates to make a campaign contribution, not that there was a quid pro quo. Nothing in Obama's 2008 platform addressed public funding of elections, which would eliminate any conflict of interest between campaign contributions and appointments. At least in this Administration we do not have a Vice President who increased his net worth by 10X by personally arranging a no-bid contract to a company he used to run.
I think he's running for the OMGOP nomination.
This is a lot more reading than I have time for. Couldn't you write a much shorter column documenting all the things Romney said in the past week that were true?