Protesters across the street from River Hills where Romney was holding a fundraiser. July 12, 2012.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
JACKSON — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney rolled through Jackson yesterday for a fundraiser at the River Hills Club. At $50,000 a couple, the event drew $1.7 million for Romney—making it the largest fundraiser in the state's history, ABC News reported.
Romney showed up in Mississippi in the middle of a national firestorm after Mother Jones magazine, the Boston Globe and others revealed documents that indicate that Romney may be lying about his past association with Bain Capital. Over the weekend, the Barack Obama campaign released a TV ad stating that Romney "is the problem" due to his financial deals, offshore bank accounts, and lack of disclosure over his taxes and tax shelters. This morning, the Obama camp released another TV ad criticizing Romney for not releasing tax returns as other presidential candidates have done.
Photo Gallery
Protesting Romney
Eight protesters gathered outside of River Hills Country Club, where Gov. Mitt Romney was holding a private fundraiser. July 16, 2012.
In response to the characterization of his and his party's wealth, Romney told the River Hills audience that his party is not "the party of the rich," as opponents accuse.
“And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true," ABC reported. "We’re the party of people who want to get rich. And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor. We want to help the poor.
“We also want to make sure people don’t have to become poor,” Romney said. “And we know what it takes to keep people from becoming poor," he added.
To emphasize his point, Romney used the wait staff at River Hills as a reference point. “I know that people in this room are probably doing relatively well, relative to folks across this country," he told the audience, as reported by Politico.com last night.
"But not everyone in America is doing so well right now, it’s tough being middle class in America right now. The waiters and waitresses that come in and out of this room and offer us refreshments, they’re not having a good year. The people of the middle class of America are really struggling. And they’re struggling I think in a way because they’re surprised because when they voted for Barack Obama…he promised them that things were going to get a heck a lot of better. He promised hope and change and they’re still waiting."
A former member of River Hills posted on the Jackson Free Press website today that dues there are about $300 a month, or $3,600 a year. Members must also buy stock at $2,500.
Outside the fundraiser, a small group of undocumented young people, Young Organized United (YOU), gathered to protest Romney's immigration stance. He has called Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law a "model" for other states, and he hopes that such laws will cause "self-deportation" of illegal immigrants. He has also taken a weak stance on the DREAM Act, a measure to help undocumented youth that is stalled in Congress due to a partisan split.
In June, President Obama issued a directive to hold deportations of youth brought to the United States illegally and to help make them eligible for work permits.
Aaron Bernadaz, 20, of Las Vegas, N.M., helped protest Romney from across the street. He is an "undocumented" student who wants to be a neurosurgeon. He told the Jackson Free Press that Romney is "against undocumented students, undocumented people."
Bernadaz wants to see better laws to help Latinos like himself who are willing to work hard to realize their goals. "We're not rats, we're people," he said.
Jacqueline Hernandiz of Southhaven acted as a spokeswoman for the group. She said the group wants to see Republicans support the DREAM Act. "We're here to show Romney we are united together," she said.
The protesters chanted "Veto Romney, not the DREAM Act!" for most of the time they were there.
This morning, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, who attended the fundraiser, tweeted out his support of Romney: "What a wonderful time in JXN yesterday evening with great leader & great American." Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and U.S. Reps. Gregg Harper and Alan Nunnelee also were in the house.
Romney placed third in Mississippi's Republican Primary this year behind Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
Comments
kdavis 11 years, 9 months ago
Donna, Donna, Donna. Earlier today, you tweeted "Donna Ladd@DonnerKay
Remarkable how far #journalism has fallen: email interviews, sources approving quotes, seeing questions in advance. All against rules at JFP
And then later that same afternoon you quote me from a conversation ON YOUR COMMENT BOARD!!!!
I'm not sure what the River Hills dues has to do with Romney's speech last night but it is your paper. Peace.
donnaladd 11 years, 9 months ago
Your comments are public, kdavis. You know that, right? And I didn't quote you by name. I used information you provided. Nothing wrong with that.
kdavis 11 years, 9 months ago
I just find it very humorous that you tweet a comment about the journalisitc integrity of the JFP and then a few hours later you quote some random person from your comment board. How do you know that I know what I'm talking about? Did you verify your information with RH?
For the life of me I cannot even understand what the dues at RH have to do with what the potential leader of the free world said last night. The entire paragraph has nothing to do with the rest of the story.
tstauffer 11 years, 9 months ago
How do you know that I know what I'm talking about? Did you verify your information with RH?
Did you lie?
kdavis 11 years, 9 months ago
Maybe I did, maybe I didn't but y'all quoted me. I would think that a fine newspaper like the JFP would verify its sources a little more diligently.
Besides, Donna knows me although I can't remember where we met. Maybe it was at a Communist Party meeting from 20 years ago.
donnaladd 11 years, 9 months ago
Not to go journalistically technical on you, kdavis, but we didn't "quote" you. We used information you provided on a public forum and not with your name attached.
I said I know who you are, not that we've met. And I've never been to a Communist meeting of any kind; I don't believe in communism and never have. And I actually know what it means.
Also, you're over the troll line at this point. You're just trying to pick a fight and now you are accusing me of being a communist. We just may not be the right kind of forum for you, kdavis. Show up to have respectful discussions about the issues or move on, please.
tstauffer 11 years, 9 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
donnaladd 11 years, 9 months ago
kdavis, you are tedious. (A) I know who you are. (B) I know other people who are members.
I do appreciate your help, though.
brjohn9 11 years, 9 months ago
Of all the trolling I've seen on this site--and I've seen plenty--I don't know that I've ever seen anything as silly as this hyperventilating over the perfectly appropriate use of the word "exclusive." Tedious, indeed.
goldeneagle97 11 years, 9 months ago
I'm gonna stay out of this fight.
To go back to Romney saying the GOP isn't the party of the rich, maybe that's not what the party intended to be, but there policies in recent years (especially in the Obama era) have sided with with the rich, with very little to no concern for the middle class and poor. They only pretend to be side with the middle class in order to disguise their agenda for the rich.
tstauffer 11 years, 9 months ago
Golden: I think Romney has actually figured out an interesting way to put it... this idea that the GOP is the party of people who want to be rich. (I don't 100% agree, but it's interesting phrasing.)
I think there are probably a lot of people who do support the GOP, even against their own interests, because of this belief that they want to side with the rich folks.
Also interesting to me was how tongue-tied he was trying to talk about poor people.
"And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor."
I'm not even sure what that means. I suppose he'll work on it. But I guess he's trying.
donnaladd 11 years, 9 months ago
It's the old telling folks without shoes to pull up their bootstraps problem.
Look, I get the point here, but they don't back it up with reality. Corporations are sitting on cash and refusing to hire right now. How can people without decent health care hope to lift themselves out of poverty. And don't even get me started on access to education. We could go on and on, but these folks are not walking the "want to help everyone get rich" talk. They're just not.
And people like us—only speaking for Todd and me here—who don't believe in massive handouts without systemic change and accountability—are called communists because we don't go along with the idea that the uber-wealthy—who like Romney take advantage of all sorts of government largesse and corporate welfare to stay that way—shouldn't have to pay a fair amount of taxes. We're "socialists" because we think a health-care plan the Republicans thought up is actually a decent idea (but could use some tweaks) in order to get businesses like ours, as well as larger companies, as well as individual people be healthy enough to succeed.
What the hell kind of people go around attacking people who actually care about the needy in our society, lying about what we believe and say, and calling us stuff that they don't even bother looking up the definition of!?
This is tragic, and I feel deeply sorry for people who are drinking the trickle-down Koolaid, especially since none of them will ever benefit from it. Maybe the people who can afford $50,000 a couple tickets to hear Romney condescend to the wait staff, but not most of the people who are going around calling the president a communist, socialist or worse.
goldeneagle97 11 years, 9 months ago
He always seem to trip over his own self when he tries to relate to less-affluent people. I guess I can give him an A for trying.
donnaladd 11 years, 9 months ago
I will say this: The presidential debates are going to be interesting—if the GOP doesn't figure out how to dump Romney at their convention. Very interesting. It's hard to trot out lies (such as the out-of-context business remark today) at a debate with this POTUS and get away with it. Romney better watch out or he'll be stumbling around the stage calling B.O. "that one" if he's not careful.
scrappy1 11 years, 9 months ago
The reason Romney's money is such an issue, because their are just as many rich democrats as republicans, President Obama wants us all to be more worried with what Romney does with his money than what Obama does with ours. Seems to be working especially with the people that aren't paying much into the government.
brjohn9 11 years, 9 months ago
It is telling how blind conservatives have become to the concerns Americans have about fairness in business and markets. Americans believe in free enterprise, but they hate corruption, in business and government. Republicans somehow convinced themselves that a "businessman" who only rode his father's riches to incredible wealth manipulating capital by leveraging struggling companies would somehow appeal to ordinary working Americans in the worst calamity since the Great Depression. This is the best effort conservatives could manage, a blue blood with Swiss bank accounts? He'll win Mississippi, where scrappies prevail. But it's hard to believe he'll win Ohio. And scrappy wants to talk about people who don't pay into government. Good luck with all that.
goldeneagle97 11 years, 9 months ago
So what if there are as many rich Democrats? That's not an issue. Romney's wealth isn't even an issue as much as why is he refusing to release his tax returns. All candidates have released many years of returns while running. Romney's own father released 12 years worth when he ran for president in the 60s. It seems as if Mitt has something to hide.
I'll put it another way: Mitt released 23 years of returns to John McCain when he was being considered as a potential running mate for McCain in the 2008 elections. Sarah Palin ended up getting the nod. Did McCain see something in Romney's returns to not choose him for the VP spot? Of course, we don't really know the real reason, but something to think about.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID