Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate for president who has not appeared on a major Sunday morning news show since joining the 2012 contest.
The last time Romney was on a Sunday show was March 7, 2010, when he appeared on Fox News Sunday. He announced he was running for president on June 2.
The major Sunday shows — NBC’s Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, CNN’s State of the Union, ABC’s This Week and CBS’ Face the Nation — take pride in doing in-depth interviews with candidates.
“We invited Gov. Romney again this week, but his campaign says he’s still not ready to sit down for an interview,” Fox News Sunday moderator Chris Wallace said at the end of a show in October.
Wallace taunted the Romney campaign by pointing out that every other major candidate has agreed to an interview.
Romney has not been on NBC’s Meet the Press with David Gregory since December 2009, according to a network spokeswoman.
He has not been on CBS’ Face the Nation since Jan. 13, 2008, according to a CBS spokeswoman.
Romney has never appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley, who took over the show on Feb. 7, 2010, according to a producer there.
And he has not been on ABC’s This Week since June 14, 2009, according to an ABC News spokeswoman.
A spokeswoman for Romney didn’t return a request for comment about why he hasn’t done any Sunday shows this year and if he will before caucus and primary contests start.
Sources at several of the Sunday shows told TheDC that they try to book Romney every week, though his campaign always resists; the typical excuse from Romney’s campaign is that he’s traveling or just unavailable.
“They continue to reach out to him,” a producer at one of the networks said, “and he continues to decline.”
Romney’s media strategy made news this week when he sat down for an interview on Fox News with Bret Baier and appeared visibly perturbed by the host’s questions.
Baier said Romney later told him that his questioning was “uncalled for” and “overly aggressive.”