Romney: A Campaign of Lies

Last night, Alan Grayson was on Eliot Spitzer’s national TV show Viewpoint, and this is what he said:

ELIOT SPITZER: Let’s bring in former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, who is currently running to represent Florida’s newly-formed 9th Congressional District. Congressman, thank you as always for joining us.

ALAN GRAYSON: Thank you.

SPITZER: So how did last night’s [Presidential] debate affect Florida voters? It is still listed, Florida that is, in a toss-up category, although it seems to be leaning toward Mitt Romney right now. Why is that? And do you think the President made any ground up last night?

GRAYSON: Oh, I think he certainly did. Look, he seemed like the President. He seemed like the President of the United States, in full grasp of the facts. Mitt Romney seemed like somebody with 15 minutes of material trying to spread it out over 45 minutes. And [Romney] seems to have this wonderful gift to string together words that mean absolutely nothing. I wrote down a couple of them as I was watching, with my family. The first answer was, “We need a very comprehensive and robust strategy,” and “we need to coordinate with our friends,” to “address the rising tide of tumult.” What does that mean? How can someone claim to be the President of the United States, or a plausible candidate for the President of the United States, and just give out vacuous nonsense like that?

SPITZER: Let me ask you this though. There is no question that over the last several weeks, Florida has been moving towards Mitt Romney. What do you ascribe that to? The unemployment rate there is at 8.7%. Foreclosures still in crisis. Can the President remedy that?

GRAYSON: Well, I think it’s been, more than anything, the impact of the lies concerning the President’s plan regarding the health care plan. I think that the fact that the other side has been pounding with ad after ad after ad this nonsense that the President is going to cut Medicare benefits, when the opposite is true, he’s actually expanding them, he’s closing the Donut Hole, that’s had an effect on Florida seniors votes. And I think that people have to see through that. The Romney campaign is running a campaign of lies. Outright lies. And I think that the President is starting to point that out. I think that other people in the Party are starting to point that out. I’ve been pointing that out now for quite a while. And I think people are going to have to see through that. In fact, the Ryan and the Romney Plan to cut Medicare, to cut Social Security, and I think that once seniors understand the facts, they’re going to vote for Obama.

SPITZER: Certainly he hopes that will be the case. But the President doesn’t have much time now to change the direction of this. And, you know, for four years, foreclosures have continued to be a problem. So… I’m troubled by the fact that he hasn’t addressed that more specifically.

GRAYSON: Well, I think you’re right. I think the President understands that. That’s why you saw a difference between the first debate, and the second and third debates. He realizes that in order to beat those lies, he has to confront them. He has to call them out. And I’m pleased to see that he’s finally doing that. I’m also pleased to see that the Democratic Party is doing that.

I mean, for the Republicans to come along and actually propose to turn Medicare into “Vouchercare,” and to turn around and say that the President is cutting benefits, when in fact the President’s plan, which is passed into law, doesn’t cut a single Medicare benefit whatsoever, is just outrageous. It’s outrageous that they would try to abuse people like that with lies.

SPITZER: What did you make of Mitt Romney last night trying to run to the middle, pretending that his foreign policy was identical to the President? Does that seem to be waving the white flag on an issue that he had been talking about the whole time? The issue of Israel, of course, in Florida is hugely important. Did the President close that gap last night?

GRAYSON: Well, honestly, no. I don’t think the President closed that gap because I’ve been hearing, as a Jewish Member of Congress from Central Florida, I’ve been hearing now for the past four years that the Right Wingers have been trying to make out this case that the President is a Muslim, that he hates Israel, that he won’t visit Israel, and so on and so forth. I ask them frankly, “Tell me one thing that the President has done to harm Israel, just one thing.” And they can never come up with a single thing. But there has been a whispering campaign regarding the Jewish vote now for four years. It’s hard for the President to turn that around.

SPITZER: Alan, I have been a devout and steadfast supporter of the President on all these foreign policy issues, in particular on Israel, where I remember that campaign began, a misinterpretation of his critical speeches. He’s been a devout supporter of Israel. But let me ask you this. As a matter of politics, you and I have both been in politics, you’re still in it. Why didn’t he visit Israel and just do what would visually have been better?

GRAYSON: Well, in fact, as he pointed out in the debate last night, he has visited Israel. And he visited Israel in a way that was profoundly important to him, and shaped his thinking in a way that is far more [significant] than Romney going to Israel in order to raise money for his campaign. So I applaud him for that.

SPITZER: I agree with you that the President went there, and as you pointed out, he went to Yad Vashem, which is the great memorial to the Holocaust, and I’m sure that was moving for him. But over the last four years, why did he not set foot in the state and say to the American Jewish community, “I understand how significant this is. As your President, I am here right now.”? I wish he would have done it. I think it would have eased, increased his capacity to win the state of Florida, and that would have been the end of the presidential race.

GRAYSON: Well, listen, it’s one more reason for four more years. He’ll have four more years to do it shortly.