The Democratic National Committee is going after former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for an interview with the Fox News Channel’s Brett Baier on Tuesday night — an appearance for which his performance has received mixed reviews. The DNC released a Web video Wednesday splicing together negative reactions from pundits, and communications director Brad Woodhouse taunted Romney aides in an email copied to a Daily Caller reporter.
“I thought it was such a disastrous interview,” said Juan Williams. Jonah Goldberg of National Review called Romney “out of sorts” and “uncomfortable.”
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd likened Romney’s performance to debates “when he gets challenged, gets knocked off message a bit. … He gets overly testy.”
The “Center Seat” interview on Baier’s “Special Report” program was a rarity for Romney, who has been noticeably absent from one-on-one interviews and Sunday political talk shows, where his GOP rivals have been fixtures.
Woodhouse took the jabs further Wednesday afternoon, sending an email titled “Hey Eric …” to Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom, and carbon-copied to campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul. The email asked why Fehrnstrom and Saul hadn’t circulated the video of Romney’s appearance.
Woodhouse emailed: “… noticed you all hadn’t promoted Governor Romney’s interview with FOX’s Bret Baier from last night. Seems worthy of being flagged. I especially liked the portions on immigration, flip-flopping (my favorite) and taking things out of context.”
“Wanted to make sure you had the link,” he added, pasting a link to the video on the Fox News Channel’s website. (RELATED: Evangelical leader: Social conservatives may not back Romney in 2012)
TheDC was blind-copied on the email, as, presumably, were other reporters.
Neither the Romney campaign nor Woodhouse responded to requests for comment.
Watch the new DNC Web video: