NBC anchor Brian Williams reprimanded Ann Romney for saying “I believe in my heart that Mitt is going to save America,” suggesting it would have been incendiary if Michelle Obama had made such a promise.
As the two sat in the NBC News booth at the Republican convention, Williams told Mrs. Romney the phrasing “jumped off the screen to me” and maintained, without identifying the supposed source, that “someone who knows you conceded that if Mrs. Obama used words like that...there’d be all kinds of hubbub.”
He demanded: “What do you mean? Those are powerful words.”
Audio: MP3 clip [1]
From the Wednesday, August 29 NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Last night, as you wrapped up, you said “this man will lift up America.” In an interview you did with Natalie Morales for my other broadcast, Rock Center, you used different language: “I believe in my heart that Mitt is going to save America.” And that jumped off the screen to me. Someone who knows you conceded that if Mrs. Obama used words like that – “Barack was going to save America” – there’d be all kinds of hubbub. What do you mean? Those are powerful words.
ANN ROMNEY: I think what it means, it comes right down to why we decided to get in the race. When I was deciding and Mitt was deciding, Mitt was reluctant. I said, I need to know one thing, is it too late basically to do the things, to fix the things for the direction this country is headed in? He said, no, it’s getting late but not too late yet. I don’t know if you can see that debt clock back there, but we are fast approaching a place where if we don’t make some dramatic changes, then we are going to be on the road to a Greece, a Spain, an Italy. Spain right now has 25 percent unemployment. If we continue to do what we’re doing, we are going to pass burdens onto our children, debt burdens that are going to be overwhelming to them, that will really cripple their lives.
So yes, it’s a sense of it’s time now to save what we now have as America. If we don’t do these tough things and turn this economy around and have a job creation that will explode and bring, you know, this economic vitality back to this nation, we’re headed on the same path that Europe is.
-- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [2] to follow Brent Baker on Twitter.