Romney Aide: Obama Adviser Is Lying About 2012 Concession Call

[DonViejo]

WRITTEN BY Jackie Kucinich & Ben Jacobs

David Axelrod is claiming Romney ‘shocked and irritated’ the president by talking about Election Night turnout in racial code—but Garrett Jackson says his boss said no such thing.

What did Mitt Romney really tell President Obama on Election Night 2012?

In a forthcoming memoir, former Obama adviser David Axelrod writes that the president was “shocked and irritated” by Romney’s concession call that night. Axelrod reports that Obama told him that the Republican presidential nominee said: “You really did a great job of getting the vote out in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee.” To Obama, that was racial code: “‘in other words, black people. That’s what he thinks this was all about,’” the adviser recalls the president saying.

But according to one of the three people in the room with Romney when he made his concession call, the former Massachusetts governor never said anything of the kind.

Garrett Jackson was Mitt Romney’s personal aide for four years and notoriously press shy. The soft-spoken Mississippian was more far comfortable in the background, handing a homemade peanut butter and honey sandwich or a Sharpie to Romney when needed, than being in the spotlight. Even after the campaign, Jackson has remained press averse, but he decided to come forward when he saw Axelrod’s account of Romney’s exchange with Obama.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/05/romney-aide-obama-adviser-is-lying-about-2012-concession-call.html

[hobbit709]

1. Want to put money on which story is more accurate?

[DonViejo]

2. It's just one more attempt to prove...

Mittless isn't the elitist one per center we already know him to be

[merrily]

3. A homemade peanut butter and honey sandwich? As opposed to what?

Last edited Sat Feb 7, 2015, 03:59 AM - Edit history (1)

Squint at this story. They are trying to paint Mitt's guy as a saint. And the story ends with a slam at Axelrod's credibility.

Regardless of who you side with, believe, etc., this story is slanted.

[DonViejo]

5. It's a response to this article...

Obama shocked, 'slightly irritated' by Mitt Romney's 2012 concession call: David Axelrod

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-irritated-romney-2012-concession-david-axelrod-article-1.2102383

posted, in part yesterday, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016113354

So, of course it's slanted.

[merrily]

34. Yes, I know. If you look at the thread to which you linked me, you will see my post.

However, what a story is responding to does not justify or explain slanting. The only thing that "justifies" or explains slanting is unethical and underhanded journalism.

Meanwhile, don't look for peanut butter sandwiches on your grocer's shelf or in your grocer's freezer compartment. Sad to say, you actually have to stick a spreader into the jar of peanut butter and spread the peanut butter on the bread, like most eight year olds know to do.

And what is the point of stressing how shy and media averse this guy supposedly is? Was anyone even trying to get him to speak to the media before he volunteered himself to deny Axelrod's claims? Is the bit about his great shyness to imply he would not have come forward unless he felt this huge burden to tell the truth about the concession call?

And how about ending the story with that shot at Axelrod's credibility--and without even giving Axelrod an opportunity to have his comment included in the story?

I don't know which version of the concession call is accurate, Axelrod's or Romney's guy. Maybe neither is accurate. I have no way of knowing. The only ones who know are Obama and Romney. But I do know the story is sleazily written. Shame on the authors, Jackie Kucinich and Ben Jacobs and shame on The Daily Beast. If the subject of the story were more important to me, I'd write them. However, the important thing from me about the 2012 election is that con man Romney lost and no one disputes that.

[bullwinkle428]

11. No doubt on Wonder bread!!!

"The bread is just the right color, my friends!"

[merrily]

35. I can barely remember the last time I saw someone make a canned peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Not as though making a "homemade" peanut butter and honey sandwich requires much skill or effort, either. Since both my parents worked once I started first grade, I'd guess I started making my own peanut butter sandwiches at age 6. Though, apparently, neither Romney nor Queen Ann can be arsed to make one. I'd be ashamed to asked someone hired by my Presidential campaign to make my peanut butter sandwiches.

Btw, I wonder how the authors of this 2015 story knew who was making Romney's peanut butter sandwiches in 2012.

[fredamae]

4. Who Cares?

This is simply Another attempt to distract us with the "He said this-He said that" bs gossipy mentality.
And This one reaches All the way Back to 2012.

What's the point of this "news story"? What, pray tell IS the News content here? What do we learn that is relevant to the Important issues at hand all around the country-like TPP, Net Neutrality, Environment? Social Security? Increase taxes for the Poor and Lower taxes for the wealthy? Rampant Police Abuse? Gun Violence? The Budget? ACA Repeal? and much. much more.

What a waste.

[DonViejo]

6. "What's the point of this 'news story'"?...

A response to this article, published yesterday by the New York Daily News

Obama shocked, 'slightly irritated' by Mitt Romney's 2012 concession call: David Axelrod

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-irritated-romney-2012-concession-david-axelrod-article-1.2102383

and posted here:

“Black people. That’s what he thinks this was all about”: How Romney’s 2012 concession irked Obama

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016113354

[fredamae]

9. Why Now? Why not Then?

the election call was made in November of 2012. More than 2 Years ago.
I question the timing of making this a "news" story Now...not the content of the call.
We have Much worse evidence of the GOP and their fkg "dog whistle" bs...right now.
I believe that should be the headline.
Neither of these men will run for POTUS again. Sorry, but I don't get it.

[DonViejo]

12. Because the President's campaign manager,....

David Axelrod, has authored a book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics, scheduled for release on February 10, 2014. The Daily News is claiming it mysteriously received an "advance copy" of the book and is scooping the content of the book.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. It hadn't been disclosed until now. Axelrod's new book is citing it.

I suspect right at that time the best thing seemed to be to ignore it and take the high road.

[fredamae]

14. Thank you both

I missed that critical bit of fact.

[DonViejo]

16. No problem, fredamae and, you're welcome!

[fredamae]

18. :)

[dsc]

21. axelrod wrote a book

and the account of the call is in the book.

[lunasun]

7. Sore Loser extreme .... in his mind it was the blah people that did him in

Out of the total population, 38.9 million people, or 13 percent, identified as Black alone -2010 census
In addition, 3.1 million people, or 1 percent, reported Black in combina- tion with one or more other races.

This only points to extreme voter fraud in paranoid Sore Losers's mind no doubt


its over mitty go away now and play with your toys leave the public eye pleeeez

[librechik]

17. I absolutely believe this of Mitt

and the debunker is a Mitt loyalist. Of course he'll rush to defend him against such a stinging accusation.

[MohRokTah]

8. Comes down to who you believe.

You can believe the guy from the team that believed all the way through that they were going to win in a landslide and that determined they should wait for a concession speech when the whole world knew that Obama had won because Karl Rove ranted about his math on Fox news.

Or you can believe the guys who won.

[salin]

10. My thoughts as well. It totally fits with the stories of how shocked he was that he didn't win

remember they kept "unskewing" the polls - and ended up with a very distorted data set.

and who can forget that rove as a raving looneytune video.

[stevenleser]

15. Mitt and Paul Ryan told well over 100 documented lies in their debates with Obama and Biden

Saying their credibility is suspect doesn't quite capture it.

[former9thward]

28. Its Axelrod, not Romney or Ryan.

I lived in Chicago when Axelrod was a shill for the Daley machine as a Chicago Tribune reporter. He even defended corruption in Chicago when Daleyites were arrested for it.

Axelrod contributed an op-ed to the Chicago Tribune in defense of patronage after two top officials in the administration of longtime client Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley were arrested for what federal prosecutors described as "pervasive fraud" in City Hall hiring and promotions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axelrod

Anyone who believes anything he says is living in an alternative universe.

[stevenleser]

32. No, it's not Axlerod. I am talking about Romney and Ryan. nt

[former9thward]

33. And I am talking about Axelrod.

All three are liars. Coin flip on who is lying here.

[JHB]

19. Hmmm, is Axelrod lying, or Jackson.....

Looking back, Jackson said Axelrod’s account left him “shocked and disappointed.”

“I was by Mitt’s side for four years,” he said. “Axelrod created enough of a lie to distort who Mitt is during the campaign. That is enough. Your guy won.”

“But,” he added, “I shouldn’t have been surprised, coming from Axelrod.”

I don't trust either political operative, but Axelrod's version comes a lot closer to the way Mitt talked before, during, and (especially) after the election.

"Created a lie to distort who Mitt is"? He's as blind as Mittens is.

[Generic Other]

22. Mitt exposed Mitt down to his jetsuit

with that secret tape. Nothing was distorted.

[JHB]

23. Nor was "People who just want stuff"

With all the conservative whining and wailing going on about Obama’s re-election, saying that he won because of “people who just want stuff” and other assorted poutrage, it’s worth noting that this is a trope they’ve been playing for a very, very long time.

Below is a conservative political cartoon from 1860, engraved by Currier and Ives and published in Harper's Magazine. Way back when “The Party of Lincoln” was actually running Lincoln for president, it was considered the liberal/left party.

See if you recognize the playbook:


http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674590/

"The Republican Party Going to the Right House"

Lincoln rides in on a (fence) rail, carried by Horace Greely (anti-slavery editor of the New York Tribune), leading his followers into a lunatic asylum.
GREELY: "Hold on to me Abe, and we'll go in here by the unanimous consent of the people."
LINCOLN: "Now my friends I'm almost in, and the millennium is going to begin, so ask what you will and it shall be granted."

Younger Woman: "Oh! what a beautiful man he is, I feel a passionate attraction' every time I see his lovely face."
Bearded Man: "I represent the free love element, and expect to have free license to carry out its principles."
Man with trim beard and hat: "I want religion abolished and the book of Mormon made the standard of morality."
Caricatured black man: "De white man hab no rights dat cullud pussons am bound to spect' I want dat understood."
Older woman: "I want womans rights enforced, and man reduced in subjection to her authority."
Scruffy man with bottle: "I want everybody to have a share of everybody elses property."
Barefoot man: "I want a hotel established by government, where people that aint inclined to work, can board free of expense, and be found in rum and tobacco."
Seedy top-hat man: " I want guaranteed to every Citizen the right to examine every other citizen's pockets without interruption by Policemen."
Man at the end: "I want all the stations houses burned up, and the M.P.s killed, so that the bohoys can run with the machine and have a muss when they please."

Let’s go down the list, shall we?:
Supported by "liberal media": Check
Liberals will embark on profligate giveaways to THOSE PEOPLE? Check.
Flighty, emotional, entranced by charisma/celebrity? Check.
People conservatives consider sexual deviants? Check.
People conservatives consider religious deviants? Check (and how ironic, this particular turn).
Grasping minorities after special rights? Check.
"Feminazis"? Check.
There's a vast army of layabouts, terrorists, and outright thieves who want to take your hard-earned stuff? Check, check, check, and check.

A hundred and fifty years later, and they're playing the same effing tune.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021803220

[lunasun]

24. thanks for sharing

[grasswire]

31. fantastic post, bookmarked. nt

[JHB]

20. The world's only non-homemade peanut butter and honey sandwiches:

All the rest are homemade. Especially if you count hotel suites, mansions, and private planes as "home".

[Whiskeytide]

26. EXACTLY my thought as well...

It's another hilarious attempt to make Romney seem "normal" that instead simply proves how out of touch he is. I have decided he's so dense about such things that his own insiders must be laughing at him and screwing with him. "Say something about the color of the trees, Mitt". "Say you eat homemade peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Mitt". I just can't imagine it's not some kind of intentional effort to make him look bad.

[ecstatic]

25. I believe Axelrod...

Mitt made public comments after the election about voters wanting gifts. At no point was mitt gracious towards voters or the president. Axelrod's account seems to be closer to the truth.

[former9thward]

29. Axelrod is a professional liar.

See post #28. He is part of the Daley Machine. I have no idea what Romney said or Obama said but I do know Axelrod was not part of the conversation.

[Major Hogwash]

27. Well, all I know is . . . I'm going to read Axlerod's book now!

This is like free advertising for David's book!!!

[bhikkhu]

30. Neither side of the story is from the people who actually had the conversation

and both sides of the story are from political operatives. I don't think its remotely necessary to debate which account is "true"; truth isn't really a part of the mental world either of the writers live in.