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Mika Brzezinski: How is Romney's binder comment not a lie?

Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski criticized GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his claim that while governor of Massachusetts he requested names of p
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Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski criticized GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his claim that while governor of Massachusetts he requested names of potential women candidates for high-ranking state jobs.

A bipartisan group known as Massachusetts Government Appointments Project (MassGAP) actually compiled the names of applicants during the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial race and furnished them to both Romney and his Democratic challenger Shannon O'Brien, according to the organization.

"How is that not a lie?" Brzezinski wondered. "When you say you sought out [women’s names], and it turns out they were brought to you! That’s not the truth, correct?...I cannot believe he told that story to the American people and prepared it for the American people and it turns out not to be true. Forget it being completely focused on women, it happens to just a little bit insulting that he had to make up a story about trying to help women because he couldn't find one on his own. It's kind of a problem."

Host Joe Scarborough disagreed with Brzezinski, calling the controversy a "desperate" play by Democrats.

"This shows how desperate Democrats are right now...that's not the concern of a waitress that is trying to keep her two jobs in Youngstown, Ohio right now," Scarborough said.

"Actually, it is," Brzezinski responded.

"It takes all the way until you’re running for governor to realize there’s not enough women in the workforce?" she added.

The former executive director of MassGap Jesse Mermell emphatically stated during a Wednesday conference call with reporters that the initiative was not Romney's.

"[T]o be perfectly clear, Mitt Romney did not request those resumes," Mermell said. "The fact that he needed our help says everything you need to know about his true commitment to advance women in office."