Mitt Romney interview: "Stop attacking success"

[Godzuki]

Romney in Piers Morgan interview: Stop attacking success


(CNN) – Following weeks of questions over Mitt Romney's personal wealth, the presumptive GOP nominee said Thursday that criticism of the nation's wealthy, including his family, would lead to economic demise.

"There are people who are trying to attack success and are trying to attack our success; that's not going to be successful," Romney said in an interview to air Thursday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." "When you attack success you have less of it, and that's what we've seen in our economy over the last few years."

The 2012 presidential campaign has centered on debate over Romney's wealth this summer, with President Barack Obama's team raising concerns about the Republican's decision to hold offshore investments and calling on Romney to release tax documents to answer any lingering queries about his financial portfolio.

The White House hopeful has firmly stated he would not release anything further than the two years worth of tax documents that he has already released and annual financial disclosure forms separately required by federal election law.

Romney, whose wealth is worth up to $256 million, has also been railed against over his tenure at the private equity firm he co-founded, Bain Capital. Democrats argue he has been misleading about when exactly he left his position as CEO at the company, saying he stayed on three years longer than he's previously admitted-a time window, Democrats say, in which he would have overseen a period in which the company is now being criticized for encouraging the practice of outsourcing.

Along with defending his personal wealth, Romney and Republicans have strongly stood against Obama's recent proposal to raise taxes on households making more than $250,000 per year, arguing such a move would have a negative impact on the economy and discourage growth.

"Dividing America based on who has money and who hasn't – who is successful and who is less successful… That is not the American way," Romney said.

Obama, defending his tax proposal, has frequently said his policies are not aimed as an attack on the wealthy.

"This has nothing to do with me wanting to punish success. We love folks getting rich. I do want to make sure that everybody else gets that chance as well." Obama said at a campaign stop in Iowa earlier this month. "For us to give a trillion dollars worth of tax breaks to folks who don't need it and aren't even asking for it, that doesn't make sense."

Romney made his comments during a sit-down interview in London, with his wife Ann by his side. The former Massachusetts governor, who headed the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, is in town to attend Friday's opening ceremony for this year's Olympic Games. The stop in London marks the first leg of a three-country trip, which also takes him to Israel and Poland over the next week.

Romney also pointed to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who Romney has admitted his campaign was considering–among others–for his running mate, and quoted a statement the freshman senator frequently makes about class warfare rhetoric.

"I heard Marco Rubio the other day, he said, 'You know, we were poor living in Miami, we saw these big homes across town…my parents never said to us, gee why don't those people give to us some of what they have. They said instead, aren't we lucky to live in a country where with education and hard work we might be able to achieve that ourselves'."

Democrats have especially hammered Romney over his former firm, Bain Capital. Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama super PAC, has released multiple commercials this summer highlighting companies that failed–and their subsequent job losses–after being invested in by Bain. While the company has said most of its companies have succeeded, Romney gave rare insight on Thursday into some of the firm's failures.

"It killed us if something was not successful. If a business we started, for instance, couldn't make it-and there were several like that-but there were several that took off in ways that we never would have imagined. There are a number of businesses that were existing businesses we wanted to make better. Most of them we did make better. Those that we didn't, we felt terrible about," he said.

In the wide-ranging interview, Romney also discussed his position on gun rights in the wake of the Colorado movie theater massacre that left 12 dead and dozens wounded.

The former governor has said in recent days he sees no need for new gun legislation, arguing that people who want to do harm will find a way to get around any further laws.

"The real point has to relate to individuals that are deranged and distressed and to find them, to help them and to keep them from carrying out terrible acts," he said. "Timothy McVeigh, how many people did he kill? With fertilizer? With products that can be purchased legally anywhere in the world, he was able to carry out vast mayhem." '

He added: "Somehow thinking that laws against the instruments of violence will make violence go away, I think is misguided."

Obama on Wednesday made headlines by making his strongest comments yet as president about gun violence. While he called for change, he did not specifically outline any proposals for new gun legislation.

"A lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals," Obama said at the National Urban League convention in New Orleans. "That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities."

The president emphasized a need for background checks and the prevention of "mentally unbalanced" individuals from obtaining guns. He faulted opposition in Congress for lack of progress made in reducing violence.

"These steps shouldn't controversial. They should be common sense," Obama said.

i swear everything the Republican party represents seems so twisted and wrong to me. its like they don't use straight forward logic more than twist things to justify/condone the inequities or issues our country faces. nobody is saying give the poor money if you're rich more than paying more in taxes if you make more(over $250k). him citing that Florida senator was just weak the point is the poor are becoming really dirt poor and there are more of them every day in this poor economy....and yet everyones supposed to pay the same in taxes.

and the gun stuff is still so funny to me with how Republicans continue to pretend taking away guns does nothing and how we're supposed to profile and pre-crime like Minority Report to prevent that stuff from occurring....like thats so much more of a realistic scenario to prevent mass shootings

they're just so consistent across the board in their agendas, and the way they logic, twisting the criticisms against them or their causes becomes more ridiculous every time i hear them. it just boggles my mind how people act like both sides are the same when they represent completely different ideals and solutions to our issues. its just unbelievable to me that people buy into that, i could never be a Republican unless i was doing so disingenuously in beliefs, and more based on personal gains.

[RaininTwos]

"Dividing America based on who has money and who hasn't – who is successful and who is less successful… That is not the American way," Romney said.

I was going to post the GIF of Michael Jordan laughing but had a change of heart. This man is one of the greatest liars in Human History. Actually, I'm leaning towards extremely out of touch, brainwashed or delusional. You have to be one of those things in order to say that with a straight face. I wasn't even going to read this because you had bolded everything, but that caught my eye.

Wow.

[Jailblazers7]

This presidential race is tiresome. I dont care about his wealth and at this point and its the major discussion of the election.

[Sarcastic]

[1987_Lakers]

I just don't see Romney winning the upcoming election. Obama knows how to brainwash people and actually has good common sense.

[hoopaddict08]

Both politicians suck


I hate politics. Man I hate politics.

[Punpun]

I hate politics. Man I hate politics.

Be the change you want to see then. Or stop whining.

[kentatm]

This presidential race is tiresome. I dont care about his wealth and at this point and its the major discussion of the election.

you should when much of his wealth is based off of shipping American jobs overseas.

[RoseCity07]

I get the feeling a lot of the right wingers in power are psychopaths. They really are incapable of having empathy for less fortunate. They try so hard to come off as caring about the middle class but they fool no one.

[Jailblazers7]

you should when much of his wealth is based off of shipping American jobs overseas.

Yeah, because Americans have a God given right to those jobs and other countries don't deserve them.

[Sarcastic]

Yeah, because Americans have a God given right to those jobs and other countries don't deserve them.

No they don't, but the US government shouldn't allow companies to ship jobs overseas without heavy fines.

[kentatm]

I get the feeling a lot of the right wingers in power are psychopaths. They really are incapable of having empathy for less fortunate. They try so hard to come off as caring about the middle class but they fool no one.

they are starting to claim the middle class does not even exist.


http://youtu.be/iIP1if7LrCg?t=1m44s

Yeah, because Americans have a God given right to those jobs and other countries don't deserve them.

WTF? Why would I want an American President to ship jobs away? Are you even from here?

[Jailblazers7]

I get that Romney is being attacked for hypocrisy and why he is being attacked for it but I don't get why outsourcing (or offshoring) gets villified all the time. It's just part of the evolution of the economy.

[kentatm]

I get that Romney is being attacked for hypocrisy and why he is being attacked for it but I don't get why outsourcing (or offshoring) gets villified all the time. It's just part of the evolution of the economy.

IDGAF about the world economy.

I care about OUR economy.

It does not help the US population at large to continuously ship away well paying jobs just so some exec can make a slightly larger bonus off cheaper labor.

[L.Kizzle]

Romney has no swagger, next!