Mitt Romney’s Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey tells Newsmax Harry Reid’s charge that Romney did not pay taxes for 10 years is an “absolutely incredible” lie designed to divert attention from President Barack Obama’s disappointing record.
Healey, who served as Romney’s second in command throughout his term as Massachusetts governor, from 2003 to 2007, also says Obama should have urged Reid to take back his accusation against the GOP’s White House candidate.
Healey is now chairman of the Massachusetts Republican state committee, and an adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign.
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In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Healey comments on Senate Majority Leader Reid’s controversial claim that a Bain investor told him Romney paid no taxes for 10 years.
Watch the exclusive video here.
“This is just absolutely incredible that Harry Reid would go to these lengths to lie, to create these distortions,” she says.
“It is a measure of the desperation that you’re seeing with the Obama administration right now. They don’t want to talk about the fact that they’ve just gutted welfare reform, President Clinton’s signature achievement from his presidency. Obama just on a whim of an executive order decides to gut that.
“They don’t want to talk about the fact that unemployment has absolutely gone up in the last few months. Things are getting not better in our country, but actually a little bit worse. And so they are trying every distraction possible, every lie possible to try to get the American people to think about anything but the record of the Obama administration.”
Asked if the Obama campaign could pressure Reid into taking back his accusation, Healey responds: “I would certainly think they would be able to reach out or at least make a public statement to that effect. Nothing keeps them from doing that.
“And they should because this is incredible that anyone in a public office would be allowed to make these unsubstantiated and completely false accusations.”
As an adviser to Romney’s campaign, Healey discusses the significance of Republicans’ recent fundraising successes.
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“Obviously the money itself is important because it’s going to allow the Romney campaign to get its message out,” she tells Newsmax.
“We’ve seen just in the last month or so over $50 million of negative advertising dumped by the Obama campaign, distorting Romney’s record in Massachusetts, distorting his record at Bain Capital and trying to undermine his ability to communicate well with the American people.
“The money that’s been raised by the Romney campaign is going to help him fight back against those negative and distorted messages.
“But even more important is the symbolism. The idea that so many of these contributions are pouring in, these small amounts, tells you that people are very concerned about Obama’s ability to lead us out of this recession, to restore our nation, and they’re looking for alternatives. They know that Gov. Romney’s experience can, in fact, lead the country forward.
“So there’s a symbolic piece to this that can’t be being missed by the Obama campaign. They must understand the fact that they aren’t able to raise that money means people just don’t believe in them anymore.”
Romney has not spoken out in support of Chick-fil-A and its president’s controversial statements regarding traditional marriage, but Healy says he has never wavered in his position on marriage.
“Gov. Romney’s position on traditional marriage is crystal clear. He’s always been a complete supporter of traditional marriage, marriage being between a man and a woman,” she says.
“He also has been a very clear supporter of freedom of conscience. He gave probably one of the two most important speeches on this topic, John F. Kennedy’s speech being the other, back in 2007 at the Bush Library when he talked about the importance of freedom of conscience in America.
“So the idea that Gov. Romney’s position on this is unclear is completely untrue. He feels that no one in this country should be persecuted for their beliefs, no one should be persecuted for their speech, and the idea that some liberal mayors around this country think it’s appropriate that you should be able to discriminate against someone because of their beliefs is simply wrong.”
Talk show host Mark Levin has been urging Romney to pick a true conservative as his running mate. As to who Romney might select, Healey says: “I unfortunately have no information that I’m able to share with you on that VP process. It is being very closely held and we are, of course, hoping for our own choices.
“But there are so many good choices out there. And virtually all of them are social conservatives. So the folks that are hoping for a social conservative as a VP pick are very likely to be satisfied.”
The Republican National Convention begins in Tampa in less than three weeks. Asked what we should expect to hear from Romney in his convention speech, Healey says: “You’re going to hear his vision for America.
“We’ve heard this before but we’re going to hear it in more full terms than perhaps you have in the past, drawing on all of the experiences that he’s pulled together from his campaigning across the country. I’m sure we’ll hear stories about Americans and about the struggles that they are encountering right now and how we can get out of this very difficult place we’re in.”
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