Romney: "I Saw Him In The Figurative Sense"
The national media have picked up on the story, broken here by the Boston Phoenix, questioning Mitt Romney's claim that he saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. And, they are pressing the campaign for an explanation.
Scott Conroy of CBS News posed the question to Mitt Romney directly: Did you see your father march with MLK with your own eyes?
Romney: “My own eyes? You know, I speak in the sense of I saw my dad
become president of American Motors. I wasn’t actually there when he became
president of American Motors, but I saw him in the figurative sense of he
marched with Martin Luther King. My brother also remembers him marching with
Martin Luther King and so in that sense I saw him march with Martin Luther
King.”
....
He added,
“You know, I’m an English literature major as well. When we say, ‘I saw the
Patriots win the World Series, it doesn’t necessarily mean you were there —
excuse me, the Super Bowl. I saw my dad become president of American Motors. Did
that mean you were there for the ceremony? No, it’s a figure of speech.”
The Washington Post's Michael D. Shear got this from Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom:
Eric Fehrnstrom, said today that the younger Romney was speaking "figuratively"
when he said he "saw" his father march with King. Fehrnstrom offered an example
to explain: "It's like if I said 'I can see Mike Huckabee as president.'"
These comments suggest that the campaign is still insisting that George W. Romney did march with King. But, they have still not found an instance of that happening.