GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Monday admitted his offer of a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry during the last Republican debate was an “outrageous number” and tried to downplay the controversy over the challenge.
Romney called his bet to Perry “an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge from Rick,” in an interview from Manchester, NH with Fox and Friends.
“It’s like saying, ‘hey, I’ll bet you a million bucks, x, y and z,” said Romney.
He added that his wife had also teased him about the exchange. Romney said that after the debate she had said, “’Hey Mitt, it was a great debate and you’re great at a lot of things, just not betting.”
Opponents have seized on the statement hoping to paint Romney as out of touch with voters faced with economic woes.
During the debate, Romney had sought to dispute Perry’s claim that he had altered his book to remove passages revealing support for individual healthcare mandates.
“You’ve raised that before,” Romney had said about the Texas governor’s claim that there were two versions of Romney’s book.
When Perry insisted the claim was true, Romney responded: “Rick, I’ll tell you what… $10,000 bet?”
“I’m not in the bettin’ business, but I’ll show you the book,” Perry replied.
On Sunday, Perry returned to the issue calling Romney “out of touch.”
“I’m driving out to the station this morning [and] I’m sure I didn’t drive by a house that anyone in Iowa would even think about that a $10,000 bet was possible,” Perry said.
In his Monday interview, Romney tried to return the focus to President Obama and continued to hit the White House for its handling of the nation’s economy.
Romney said Obama and Democrats were “trying to deflect blame.”
“The president is the person who’s failed the American people and middle class,” said Romney. “He’s played 80 rounds of golf.”
“He’ll do anything to deflect from his record and it’s not going to work,’ he added. “The president has been in office for 3 years, he’s forgetting that,” said Romney.
In an interview broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday the president said that it would take a “long-term” effort to bring back the economy, perhaps even more than one president to see the recovery through.
“I agree with him on that,” Romney said.
Romney also downplayed the challenge from new GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich.
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2 Responses
This is an absolutely stupid thing to care about.
Yes, all the candidates are rich. That’s just how it is.
For Perry, $10K is probably two weeks gross salary. For the average American it’s two months pay. For Romney whose father was president of an auto manufacturer, and who built on that to run a major hedge fund, it’s small change. While “country club” Republicans won’t mind, “Sam’s Club” Republicans will be highly offended.
And then there is the point about “betting” even as a rhetorical device. Most Repubicans are religious fanatics who don’t approve of gambling, and it sounds childish at best to make a “bet” even as joke.