Mitt Romney gave a speech in front of the country’s oldest civil rights organization, the NAACP, on Wednesday that was interrupted with boos even though he touted his education and economic proposals to the crowd. Romney stressed the important of reducing how much the government spends: “If our goal is jobs, we have to stop spending over a trillion dollars more than we take in every year. And so, to do that, I’m going to eliminate every non-essential, expensive program I can find. That includes ‘Obamacare.’”
That statement caused loud boos from the audience. Romney then referenced a survey that said three-fourths of the Chamber of Commerce’s business members say the health care law in the country makes it less likely to hire employees. Romney then talked about his five steps to help the economy. Those steps included restoring economic freedom, nurturing skilled workers and expanding trade.
“I know the president will say he’s going to do those things. But he has not. He will not. He cannot. And his last four years, in the White House, prove it definitively. If I’m president, job one for me will be creating jobs,” Romney said. “I submit to you this: if you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him.”
Both of those statements caused the crowd to boo the presidential candidate. The speech lasted for 25 minutes, with the audience being polite for the majority of it. The crowd even provided Romney with light applause every now and then. One statement that received applause included the following:
“Now with 90 percent of African-Americans, who typically vote for Democrats, you may wonder, or some may wonder, why a Republican would bother to campaign in the African-American community and to address the NAACP. One reason, of course, is that I hope to represent all Americans, of every race, creed and sexual orientation. From the poorest to the richest and everyone in between.”
Romney even discussed the historic story related to the election of President Barack Obama, which garnered him some more applause.
“If someone had told us in the 1950s or ’60s that a Black citizen would serve as the 44th president of the United States, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised. Picturing that day, we might have assumed that the American presidency would be the very last door of opportunity to be opened. Before that came to pass, every other barrier on the path to equal opportunity would surely have to come down. Of course, it hasn’t happened quite that way. Many barriers remain. Old inequities persist. In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before. And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward.”
