It's like all those "9/11 Truth" conspiracies, but in this case it's actually kind of true. At least the part about considering the death of Americans in a foreign attack as an opportunity for political gain.
In the now-infamous video in which Romney says that half the country pays no taxes, thinks of themselves as victims, and don't care for their lives - and he won't have anything to do with them as president - just gave some more today when the entire video was released (only a portion was shown yesterday).
In today's full video, Mitt Romney actually said that if any Americans get taken hostage, like they did in Iran, or any similar national security crisis, Romney would "work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity."
And Romney did just that, last week when Americans we dying in Libya and he jumped headlong into the crisis in an effort to politicize the death of a US ambassador. At the time, many were asking "what is the man thinking?" Now we know.
Remember that last week Romney's advisers were quoting saying that they saw the murder of American citizens in Libya as "an opportunity." The exact same language Romney used in May to describe the taking of American citizens as hostages. From Buzzfeed:
Questioner: When Carter was president, we had hostages. Ronald Reagan was able to make a statement even before he became, he was actually sworn in, and the hostages were released…This also perhaps explains Romney's bizarre comments about how his mere presence as the president-elect would bring money flooding back into America. He was comparing himself to Reagan as president-elect during the Iran hostage crisis.
Mitt Romney: On the day of his inauguration.
Questioner: Right. So my question is really how can you sort of duplicate that scenario?
Romney: I could ask you, I could ask you how you do I duplicate that scenario?
Questioner: I think it had to do with the fact that the Iranians perceived Reagan… That’s why I’m suggesting that something that you say over the next few months gets the Iranians to understand that their pursuit of the bomb is something that you would prevent. And I think that’s something that could possibly resonate very well with the American public.
Romney: I appreciate the idea. One of the things that’s frustrating to me: in a typical day like this, when I do three or four events like this, the number of foreign policy questions I get is between zero and one. And the American people are not concentrated at all on China, on Russia, Iran, Iraq, and this President’s failure to put in place a status of forces agreement allowing ten to twenty thousand troops to stay in Iraq- unthinkable! And yet, in that election, in the Jimmy Carter election, the fact that we had hostages in Iran, I mean, that was all we talked about. And we had the two helicopters crash in the desert, I mean, that was the focus, and so him solving that made all the difference in the world. I’m afraid today that if you simply got Iran to agree to stand down on nuclear weapons, they’d go, “Now hold on. It’s really a-” I mean, if something of that nature presents itself I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity.
The final irony is that Romney called for the release of the full video, because somehow that was going to exonerate him.
How'd that work out for him?
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