In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, former presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney sat down for his first interview since the 2012 election.
When asked about the election, Gov. Romney did not think that is was possible that he would lose. “I think we were convinced that we'd win. We saw that the polls were very close. But we knew the energy and passion was with our voters and my heart said we were going to win,” stated Gov. Romney.
He then conceded that he had lost when 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. rolled around on election night, and he described the realization as “hard”, “emotional”, and feeling that he had really let the people down who had helped with his campaign.
Wallace also asked Gov. Romney about the conference call he had with top donors, in which he said that he blamed his defeat on the President giving away things, to which the Governor unapologetically replied, “It's a proven political strategy which is, you give a bunch of money from the government to a group and, guess what, they'll vote for you.”
Fast forward to today. Although Gov. Romney did not win, he still wants to have influence on getting the Republican Party “into a position where we can be successful in solving the problems the country has.”
A major problem Gov. Romney identified is how the President handled the sequester.
“He didn't think the sequester would happen. It is happening. To date, what we've seen is the President out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing. Now, what does that do?”
Gov. Romney went on to say it’s frustrating watching how things are being handled including the sequester and immigration reform.
“People who have come here illegally should not be given a special pathway to permanent residency or citizenship in this country merely because they've come here illegally,” stated Gov. Romney.
And then Chris played the dreaded “47 percent” clip to which Gov. Romney described as a very “unfortunate statement” because it was not what he meant and agreed it was no question that it hurt and did real damage to his campaign.
When asked about his overall campaign, Gov. Romney stated, “Well, I see my mistakes and I see my flaws and I did better this time than I did the time before, and I won't get a third chance. I'm not doing it again.”
Comments