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VAN METER, Iowa -- Mitt Romney said Tuesday that he had actually met one of the Navy SEALs to have been killed in the Sept. 11 attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Evan Vucci / AP
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shakes hands during a campaign rally, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, in Van Meter, Iowa.
A day after delivering a major foreign policy speech -- which included sharp criticism of President Barack Obama's response to the terrorist attack -- Romney acknowledged having met the SEAL, Glen Doherty, during a past holiday party.
"This is kind of a strange story so bear with me here," Romney told an audience on a farm outside of Des Moines. He went on to say that he and his wife, Ann Romney, had been invited to a neighborhood Christmas party a few years ago, but they inadvertently went to the wrong party.
"We were a little embarrassed, but they treated us well nonetheless. And I got to meet some really interesting people," Romney continued.
One of them, Romney said, was a former Navy SEAL from Romney's home state of Massachusetts.
"He told me that he keeps going back to the Middle East," Romney recalled.
"He cares very deeply about the people there. He served in the military there, went back from time to time to offer security services and so forth to people there. You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALS killed in Benghazi on September 11th."
The events in Benghazi have become a charged issue in the campaign, as Obama defends himself against charges that the consulate was poorly protected.
The attack resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first ambassador killed in the line duty in three decades. Three other Americans were killed, including two former U.S. Navy SEALs working as security contractors.
The Romney campaign later confirmed to reporters that the man Romney met at that party in La Jolla, CA, several years ago was Doherty, of Winchester, Mass.
A neighbor of Romney's reached out to the candidate last week to notify Romney of the coincidence. Doherty's sister said the campaign had notified her family that Romney would speak about the late SEAL, and the family set up a foundation in his honor in anticipation of the mention.
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Finally a lie that can't be fact-checked. See Mitt, evolution is real, even yours.
unfortunately, lol
Story from Seattle tells a different version of what happened in this chance encounter.
Ron & Don show on 97.3 KIRO FM in Seattle had a different take on this story as told by one of the Seals close friends.
And the fallen Seal's mother has denounced Romney for using her son's death as political fodder against President Obama. This has been reported in The Daily Beast and WHDH-TV, Boston:
The propaganda is thick and heavy.
Some talk about Obama failing, about Dodd and Frank being responsible for the financial crisis and how great Bush-Cheney were, lets just consider a different view. If there had been stronger regulations, better enforcement and more stringent over view, instead of the permissiveness that was being rationalized as “conservative”, maybe they couldn’t have created all of those derivatives that hid the risk and then maybe they couldn’t have oversold all of it and maybe with the insurance companies understanding the risk they wouldn’t have been so eager to insure against losses, and maybe the brokers wouldn’t have been able to sell more because they wouldn’t have gotten the money to offer more mortgages ... and low and behold, then no problems.
But that wasn’t the case and there were problems, in fact drastic losses that Obama inherited and he reacted to bail them out, being repaid with interest as I understand, and then he followed up by establishing regulations, oversight and enforcement to prevent it from happening again and even rules to prevent government from being caught needing to bail them out once more. Now maybe those are actually the very regulations Romney wants to do away with, to allow “more freedom”, but we don’t know because he doesn’t tell any of the details and only says “trust me”. Yea right, trust him after he has made it clear that he wants to return to “more of the same” Bush-Cheney style and again give the 1% Carte Blanche, cutting regulations, cutting their taxes and again implementing permissive policies, allowing them to further exploit advantages, to further feed their insatiable “more” (never enough) appetite and again just leave the costs, the losses to the 99%. I think once again who really fails there is the people who just wouldn’t have a chance.
greed greed and more greed.
Is there no limit to greed?
Apparently, NBC unlike ABC, hasn't yet learned that the mother of this poor pawn is outraged by Romney's use of her son's death to make himself look more "compassionate" and has told reporters she "Doesn't trust" the governor at all. Romney went on to continue mentioning her son in this pandering fashion for several hours after his campaign learned she wished him to cease and desist. This last is the most egregious aspect of the story.
Apparently, NBC, unlike ABC, hasn't heard that the poor boy's mother is outraged by Romney's pandering and shameless use of her son's story and has demanded he no longer tell it. What will become the far bigger story is the fact that the candidate went on to repeat the story to two more Ohio audiences *after* he was told to stop doing so. The mother told reporters she doesn't trust Romney, and finds his feeding off the family's loss to be shameful.
NEWSFLASH
47%...Dead U.S. Navy Seal's Mother cut ties with Romney camp.............
Mitt Romney is wrong to use this fallen soldier as a way to bolster his image of being compassionate, caring or tender. Mitt Romney is saying this soldier, along with his comrades, came from afar when they heard of the trouble at the embassy - fine. That is the danger soldiers face daily - risking their lives. What Mitt forgets is Doherty and his fellow men and women in uniform ALL risk their lives daily and have since the beginning of this Afghan and other wars in the Middle East, including the Gulf Wars. This is the danger involved in supporting war, participating in war and what our military faces to protect us and our country. Mitt Romney is the candidate wanting more military spending, higher than levels during WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam and what has been spent to date for the wars in the Middle East. Mitt Romney has no right using a fallen soldier, or soldiers serving anywhere, for his political gain especially since he and his five sons have never risked their lives in the line of duty. Mitt Romney's only reason for supporting higher defense spending, sending more soldiers off to war, and spending dollars he cannot or will not defend, is to make money from lucrative defense contractors we have learned about since the Bush years and Gulf Wars. Dohery's mother is speaking out against Mitt Romney and using her son for political gain while harming the President. This man will stoop to anything for a vote - he is really showing his true colors.
Yeah, but did the guy really want to meet Willard? Now his mom does not want Willard to use her sons name for his own political gain. Poetic justice for the Wannabe Chicken in Chief.
Well, I hope this disclosure has been thoroughly vetted. I trust it has been. However, if it somehow turns out to be untrue, well that would be disastrous. Of course Romney already know that and I am sure he has had his team check and double check the facts.
What is the significance of this chance encounter? Not a lot. He may have met him and never talked to him since. It was simply a chance encounter and should be limited to a passing comment and not much more. But it does add a very human element to the tragedy at our embassy in Libya. For Romney, at least, it has a human face. It is these chance encounters that brings humanity back to our elite (and I think detached) political leaders.
He's told so many lies ,you don't know whether to believe him or not. Me, I think he's lying 99 44/100 % of the time. He's a pathalogical liar. How in the hell can we trust this creep to run the country...
The deceased Seal's mother has expressed her dismay that Romney is using the death of her son to attack Obama and has called upon him to stop his gross political abuse of this issue for partisan purposes. Romney is such a total duche.
So, Robme, now that you have tried to use the tragedy for your political ploy, where are the TAX RETURNS?
The Seal's mother has asked Mitt Romney to stop using her son's death in his speeches (his pathetic sobbing). WHDH Boston reported that Ms. Doherty the Seal's mother stated:
" I don't trust Romney" "He should not make my son's death part of his political agenda"" It's wrong to use these young men who wanted freedom for all to degrade Obama" .
Mitt andd Ann were not invited at this party but they showed up anyway. It is reported that once Mitt found out that Glen Doherty was in the military, " Romney kept on introducing himself as Mitt Romney, a political figure. Glen (told his friends) believed it to be very insincere and stale"
There you go.
Latest, Mitt and his entourage have agreed not to use the Seal's death in his stomp speeches.
Now i watched Mitt Romney tell this story a few days back, he looked like he was in tears when he told the story. I for one thought this was a very close friend of his, low and behold, Mitt was at it again. He chased young Seals in parties where he was not invited and use their death to further his political ambition. This guy has no shame.
i do believe that obama foreign policy is in the toilet! speaking as he has of the Israel prime minister is pathetic! biden is a jerk off with no morels at all. he was very disrespectful person showing his ignorance in the debate. he acted like a clown with this debate,and does not have a clue how to run foreign policy. this guy is just stupid!