YouSaid · the spoken record

Mitt Romney

lines on the record
74
first
2015-10-16
most recent
2015-10-16
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “And we all look at Washington and say, gosh, Washington is broken. They can't get anything done. And that's true. But Washington reflects the people who elected the representatives in Washington and the nation is divided. And half the nation about is pulling in one direction, and the other part of the nation is pulling in the other, and not allowed as being able to be done, and not a lot of discourse at the middle to find common ground. And, I mean, I've got my own thoughts as to why that's happening and where that's headed. But ultimately, I think you have to have a leader who is able to rise above the division and call on the greater good, educate people as to the course that must be taken, and be willing to take a couple of attacks coming from the other side and ultimately put his head down and say, no, we're going to come together and work together on this.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Well, that's an even bigger topic, which is why have we become less and less able to take on the challenges of the modern world? Why aren't we informing our entitlements? Why aren't we dealing with the massive debt the country has? Why aren't we really improving our schools?”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Well, I think a lot of people, many of them in my party, are very concerned about the growing reach of the federal government, and they're pleased with local and in some cases state governments, but they're very concerned about the federal government mandating how people have to live their lives. And so anything that smacks of a federal government takeover or more intrusiveness into their lives is, in my view, an appropriate response, which is, wait a second, why can't we do a better job at the state level or at the local level depending on the issue? And so Obamacare was seen as an effort by the federal government to reach its hand into the states and mandate how people have to live.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “The lives of people who don't have care. And we could do a better job. And we also thought we could do it without having to spend more money. We thought we could take money from the free care pool we were already using and devote that to helping people buy insurance if they couldn't afford it themselves. And we're pretty pleased with what we were able to accomplish.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “There's no question it has an enormous emotional impact for me. And you are right. As a matter of fact, my Secretary of Economic Affairs, after we left office, she was without work. She was looking for a new job, so she was temporarily unemployed, would not have had insurance but for the plan in Massachusetts that provided insurance for, and she got brain cancer. And she needed, of course, extensive operations and chemotherapy and so forth, which she says she would not have been able to have afforded were it not for the plan we put in place. Yeah, I mean, I think people ought to have insurance, and just like your experience with President Obama, my colleague said for a Republican to be talking about getting everybody insured is not good politics. And I said, look, I think I can see a pathway to get everybody insured, and I'm going to do it. I recognize just how critical this is.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yeah, of course, David. And I had served in my church as a pastor. My church doesn't have a paid ministry, and so I'd served as a pastor for a congregation or two, actually. And there had been people in our congregation that had become very ill or had reversals of one kind or another. And I wondered how can they make it without some kind of insurance to help them through difficult times because the medical bills can become overwhelming and daunting. And in a lot of respects, people are stabilized in the emergency room and given the care necessary to keep them from dying immediately, but the kinds of cures you'd like to have, the long-term help that you'd like to have, is not available to people without insurance in many cases. And so, yeah, I recognize.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “And in this case, this was the perhaps the greatest shock. We'd had children that had been sick, and yes, I'd been in a very severe automobile accident, but with an accident, if you come out alive, you know you'll ultimately heal and get back to normal. But with a disease like MS, you know that you're forever changed, that Anne will always have this hanging over her and will be progressively weaker and weaker and able to do less and less in her life. And so your plans change. And in some respects, you cling more desperately to the things you love and care about. And you recognize the real currency in life. It's not fame and fortune. It is the people that you love and that you care about.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “No question about that. I had extraordinary parents and a gifted upbringing with great prosperity and a wonderful education and things went pretty well. I think most people in their lives, things seem to go pretty well until they don't.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “and one brochure was on ALS Lugaric's disease, another was on Parkinson's disease, another was on multiple sclerosis. And we looked at each other and said this is not looking good. And we went into his office and he put her through a number of tests, and then he said, I think this is probably MS. I can't be sure, but we need to do more tests. And he stepped out of the room, and Anne and I both broke down. We hugged each other, but recognized that our life had changed forever. And I did say to Anne at that time, I said, you know, as long as it's not fatal, we can handle it. We can do this together. And the only thing we have to hope and praise that this is not a fatal condition like ALS. How people deal with that prognosis, I don't know.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “When we learn together because she had been complaining that her right leg was a little numb in one spot on her thigh, and then the numbness kept getting larger, more and more area of her leg, and ultimately part of her abdomen were just numb and feeling sort of dead to her. And so she called her brother who's a physician ophthalmologist actually and told her told him her symptoms. And he said, well, you ought to see a neurologist. So he made an appointment together with a neurologist and went there. And when we came in and said”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Well, that was critical for me, which is I would not have been involved in politics if Anne or I or her doctors felt that my involvement politically and her involvement on the campaign trail would in any way affect or hurt her multiple sclerosis and its prognosis. And our doctor said that that is just not a consideration so long as Anne doesn't overdo it, doesn't stay out late at night or make too many speeches or get herself in a setting where she's just under extraordinary stress. And fortunately she has been healthy pretty much during this entire political portion of my life. Although there were a couple times she has omitted now, after the campaign was over, that she was beginning to feel the effects of the disease and had to back off, and had I known it, I'd have been much more aggressive in backing her off.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Yeah, I mean, well, as Donald Trump has put it out, I'm not rich, but actually I am rich, but not as rich as him. But I am independent financially, and that allowed me to get into the political sphere.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “And I said, why? And he said, well, if your kids haven't been raised, if you get elected to office it may turn their head. They may think there's something special because their dad is a congressman or a state senator or whatever, and that may influence their development. And he said in terms of independent financially, he said, You don't want to be in a position where to pay your mortgage, you've got to win the election. Because it might cause you to say things you don't really believe. And so I never imagined I'd get involved in politics because I never imagined that I'd be independent financially. I know my kids get raped someday. But I didn't think that.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Well, you won't like this. As a guy who loves politics, you'll be concerned about this, but he said, Mit, don't ever get in politics until or unless your independent financially and your kids have been raised.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Gotta always be on. And you do 10 speeches a day or 10 meetings a day. And people ask all sorts of questions. And sometimes you don't think them through carefully and you get tangled up in your words and something comes out of no way you don't mean.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “There's a tape, there's someone there with a flip phone or with an iPhone that's capturing every word. And so you're not as careful about phrasing things the way you really want to phrase them. You're a little quick, you're flip, and that's, I think people recognize that's the step possible anymore. As a matter of fact, when I was thinking of running again, I said to someone, you know, if I run again, I want to have someone from our staff videoing everything I say, during the entire race, anytime I'm in the public, I want to have a video being taken, so I have the context and I can use that if someone springs something. And I think that's also a disappointment.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Well, you clearly recognize in politics that everything you say can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion. And there are things you say you go, gosh, I wish I could have said that differently. I wish I could take that back. I'm sure he wish he could said it differently. Yeah, I mean, there's no question that those things come back to hurt you and haunt you. And it happens on both sides of the aisle. For sure. particularly now. I mean, he was fortunately, or maybe I shouldn't give him the excuse, but he was being interviewed on TV when he said brainwashed. But today, you're always being interviewed. Well, I mentioned 47%.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “History, and that the Department of Defense was providing false statistics to the American people and basically lying to the American people. So he came back and said, look, I've been brainwashed over there in Vietnam. The American people being brainwashed by our military. And his opponents and the media jumped on this, oh, Romney says he's brainwashed. How could we have a president who's been brainwashed? And they belittled him and diminished him. I think he could have weathered that storm, but I think he felt that he needed to get out of the way and let someone else take on Richard Nixon, who he thought would not be the ideal president. And the ideal was.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Well, you know, he was absolutely right. I mean, he went to Vietnam and felt that the statistics he was given, the things he was being shown by military advisers there, gave a very one-sided view and an inaccurate view. And that is now.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “There's no question but that his view was that all men and women are created equal and loved by God. And that is also the position of the church. So in that respect,”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Well, the church didn't take any political views that I can recall that related to the kinds of things he was dealing with, the church was always very happy with him, and he was given extraordinary responsibilities as a leader in the church.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “You didn't second guess dad. You could argue with him before the fact, but you didn't go back and try and revisit what had already happened. And with him, I mean, he had such fundamental guiding principles that he never varied from them. And one of them was that all people were created equal, that were all sons and daughters of the same God, that God loved all of his children, and that it was simply unthinkable that in the United States of America that African Americans would not have the same opportunities and the same prospects for happiness as white Americans.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Critical political issues. One was education in America and in Detroit. He was very concerned about Detroit schools and ultimately became involved with a major project to try and revamp the school system in Detroit. Number two, he was concerned about what he used to call concentrations of economic power, both corporate power, concerned about big companies. He said GM, for instance, should be split up, concerned about the power of big companies, concerned about the power of big unions, and felt that America needed to have those concentrations taken apart. So I would hear these things at the dinner table. He basically took what he'd been saying at the dinner table to the public arena, and much to our surprise, he was successful at it.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “You know, I don't know that he thought of himself as being involved politically at all. I mean, he was a car guy, as you know, born in Mexico, came to this country poor, didn't graduate from college, got a job, his first job working for a Democrat senator from Massachusetts, actually, and ultimately became kind of an expert in trade policy and got hired by the Aluminum Company of America to work for them, found himself working in the auto industry ultimately, and rose to the top of a car company. But as we sat down at the dinner table, and by the way, back in the 1960s, that's what you did. You sat at the dinner table every night, and we would have long discussions about the economy, about cars, about politics, but what was happening in the country, about the president. That's just what we did. I saw him very concerned about a few.”

    2015-10-16 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 5 - Mitt Romney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source