Politics

Perry video attacks Romney on flip-flops: ‘Mitt-Leading’

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled down Thursday on charges leveled against GOP presidential front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, during Tuesday’s Las Vegas debate.

Perry has been attempting to chip away at Romney’s front-runner status by tying his the government-run health insurance he passed in Massachusetts to Obama’s national health care law. Despite widespread hatred of “Obamacare” by a majority of Republican primary voters, Romney has remained consistent in the polls while Perry, after a series of poor debate performances, has plummeted.

The Texas governor continued his health care attack against Romney in a new video Thursday, charging Romney with deceiving the public about how much influence the Massachusetts heath care model had in creating “Obamacare.”

The Internet video highlights an interview in which Romney explained that he was “glad” the president was using the Massachusetts program as a model for national health care. The video further attempts to show how Romney has flip-flopped on the issue of health care and hits the Massachusetts governor on the fact that the same advisers to Romney advised Obama on his health care plan.

Romney addressed these charges in Tuesday’s debate, reasserting that he opposes Obamacare and would repeal it if elected, but, as the video shows, the charge continue to hold weight.

Perry’s video also returns to the topic of a fiery exchange the pair had about illegal immigration at the Las Vegas debate. The Texas governor has taken heavy criticism from conservatives over signing legislation to give college tuition to the children of illegal immigrants in Texas, opposing E-Verify immigration status checks at work, and opposing portions of the tough Arizona immigration law. Still, Perry went on the offense during the debate, attacking Romney for employing a yard work company that hired illegal immigrants.

The video focuses on the fact that it took Romney a year to fire the yard company that hired illegals and his response that he finally fired them because, “I’m running for office for Pete’s sake — I can’t have illegals.”

The video ends calling Romney “Mitt Leading” — a play on “misleading,” sinisterly concluding, “You cannot lead a nation by misleading the people.”

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