Posted on 01/05/2014 8:00:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind
On Saturday, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry offered an emotional, tearful apology for a New Year’s weekend segment that used Kieran Romney‘s appearance in a Romney family photo as a setup for jokes about diversity, and became a full-blown media conflagration. On Sunday, former Governor Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News Sunday to address the controversy, which host Chris Wallace called “a disgraceful political attack on a baby.”
Last Sunday, Melissa Harris-Perry moderated a panel that set upon a Romney family photo as the pivot point for jokes about Republican lack of diversity. Harris-Perry’s own remarks were relatively innocuous, but panelist Pia Glenn sang “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same” upon the photo’s introduction, and comedian Dean Obeidallah joked “I think this picture is great. It really sums up the diversity of the Republican party, the RNC. At the convention, they find the one black person.”
All involved issued a raft of online apologies of varying scope and sincerity, with Harris-Perry citing her own Mormon background in her apology, and expressing an intention to “celebrate” the photo.Commentators and reporters from rival cable news networks made Harris-Perry the subject of multiple broadcasts this week, but Saturday morning, Harris-Perry made an abject, emotional on-air apology.
At the end of a wider-ranging interview Sunday, Chris Wallace played a clip of the controversial segment, and asked Gov. Romney “Governor, this must be hurtful, and I know you are a classy guy and you don’t want to get into it, I got to ask you, honestly, from the heart, how did you, and quite frankly, how did Mrs. Romney feel when you heard your baby grandson Kieran was the target of political ridicule?”
“Let me first note, Chris, we love this little guy a great deal,” Gov. Romney began. “He was an answer to prayer, and we love that he is a part of our family. He is a part of our family.”
“That being said, I recognize that people make mistakes,” he continued, “and the folks at MSNBC made a big mistake. They’ve apologized for it. That’s all can you ask for. I am going to mover on from that. I am sure they want to move on from it. Look, I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself. They’ve apologized for this. You know, I think we can go on from there.”
“Let me just ask if can press a little bit on this, sir,” Wallace said. “You tend to speak from the head. I know Mrs. Romney tends to speak from the heart. I suspect she took this somewhat more personally. What about the idea that political discourse would include going after a little baby?”
“Well, you know, I think people recognize, and the folks at MSNBC have apologized, recognize people like me are fair targets. If you get in the political game, you can expect incoming. But children, you know, that’s beyond the line, and I think they understand that, and feel that as well. I think it’s a heartfelt apology. I think for that reason, we hold no ill will whatsoever.”
Wallace then played a bit of Harris-Perry’s apology, but then said “On the other hand, I have to point out during the segment, she had a good laugh and said, maybe Kieran would marry Kim Kardashian’s daughter and you and Kanye West would be in-laws. Your reactions to her comments then, and her apology?”
“I think her apology was clearly heartfelt. We accept that,” Governor Romney said, and with apparent amusement, added “with regards to the rest of the comments, I hadn’t heard those and don’t have any comment on those.”
Here’s the clip, from Fox News Sunday:
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
What is particularly interesting about the original segment it that the panel cited a "lack of diversity" in the Republican party, but yet they failed to address how black republicans are treated by democrats, the media and other black people. See Clarence Thomas, Allen West, and Herman Cain for a few examples. Absolute hypocrisy from the left, but to no surprise.
Not enough. Romney is so damn “classy” that he refused to mention Benghazi even once in the foreign policy debate. Nice guys like that lose elections. He had a real chance to make MSNBC and the Left the target of marot criticism and punted. Just like his entire 2012 campaign was one big punt. We need leaders with balls of steel, not “classy” sweethearts.
A big amen to that.
Unfortunately class does not win elections. We’d never have a Clinton in the White House, nor the angry class warrior Obama.
Another case of class vs obama trash.
Not sure I get this? How does Perry issue a heartfelt apology for anything? The women lives on hatred. What she did is normal action/speech for her.
By responding as he did here, Romney makes sure she remains the story. Smart.
As for Bush not showing backbone against Clinton, or Perry showing backbone against Obama, fair comment. It’s true.
It’s one thing to be charitable to those who offend you, but it’s another entirely to be charitable to people who clearly are an enemy to our nation.
well Willard got what he wanted..
a spot on the Sunday talk shows...
gotta keep ya face out there if ya wanna run for office..
gotta keep in the news...
even if ya hafta use a little black baby boy so ya can flap ya victim card to do it, well whatever works...
Willard is such a liberal pig...
and hes still using Conservatives to pimp for him...
and trash is winning the day.
I don’t understand this “classy response” ... I hate “whatever” as an answer to anything, but it would have been most appropriate in this case. That woman deserves an answer that doesn’t confirm she is human.
Mitt Romney spent years trying to create a national myth that Ronald Reagan was “adamantly pro-choice”, he has refused to apologize.
The best response from Romney should have been.
“Who? I don’t know this person. If I went around and had to apologize for every stupid thing a progressive said I’d never have any free time. Moving on.”
I wish Melissa would invite Paula Dean on her show to discuss the sincerity of apologies and the “diversity” of forgiveness they elicit from the Left!
Can’t argue with you there. Romney was a fraud of a candidate nationally. As with most, there are some negatives and some positives for every candidate, but in the end Romney is a moderate to left leaning Republican and not a conservative. He couldn’t win because he couldn’t articulate an alternative to Obama’s plan. It was a wasted election cycle because the party lined up behind Romney instead of encouraging others to get in the race.
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