Politics

George Will on Romney tax-return attacks: He is ‘losing in a big way’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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On ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” this weekend, Washington Post columnist George Will took a swipe at presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney for how he has handled his financial disclosures.

During the roundtable segment of the program, Will argued that Romney is still acting like a businessman instead of a politician.

“Mitt Romney is losing at this point in a big way,” Will said. “If something is going to come out, get it out in a hurry. I do not know why — given that Mr. Romney knew the day that McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again, that he didn’t get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest. He’s done nothing illegal, nothing unseemly, nothing improper, but lots that’s impolitic, and he’s now in the politics business.”

Will explained that Romney’s ties to the unpopular financial sector are hurting him significantly.

“George, I remember — 1994 in September sitting in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Boston Commons talking with the Republican candidate for Senate, Mitt Romney, at a time when he was going through a mild version of this with all of the attacks on his private sector [experience],” Will continued. “The Republicans have now nominated someone from the financial sector at a time when the financial sector is in extremely bad odor. Hardly a day goes by — the LIBOR scandal, TARP, the condition of the country that we’re allowed to keep profits private and socializing losses — all of this conditions the atmosphere in which this is occurring.”

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