Politics

Hilary Rosen dismisses Obama campaign denunciation of her Ann Romney remarks as ‘just politics’

David Martosko Executive Editor
Font Size:

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who faced criticism about her remarks this month when she said likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s wife Ann “never actually worked a day in her life,” dismissed the Obama campaign’s rebuke against her comments as “just politics.”

“This isn’t about me,” Rosen said. “This is about that debate that, again, I caused [by] taking the wrong turn. The economic issues that Mitt Romney has to face and how it affects women are absolutely fair game in this debate. That’s where I intended to keep going. And I think that’s really where American people want it to go.”

Host David Gregory asked if Rosen thought Ann Romney had the standing to speak about women’s issues, and Rosen said that was up to her husband to determine.

She instead correlated Romney’s argument about 40 percent of Americans avoiding a tax burden as part of an attack on women.

“I’ll leave that the Mitt Romney to decide who he talks to,” she said. “I’m not going to go there. Where I’m going to go is: Does Mitt Romney understand that when he’s out there complaining that 40 percent of the people in this country don’t pay taxes, what he’s really talking about are poor working people, mostly women, who get away from paying taxes because of the earned income tax credit that he wants to take away while he gives his rich friends a tax cut? That’s the debate that I’m going to engage in.”

Follow Jeff on Twitter