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Romney: Obama will 'say things that aren't true' in debates

Gov. Mitt Romney says he’s worried about accuracy — President Barack Obama’s, that is.

Gov. Mitt Romney says he’s worried about accuracy — President Barack Obama’s, that is. "I think the challenge that I'll have in the debate is that the President tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren't true," Romney said in an interview with ABC."I've looked at prior debates," he added. "And in that kind of case, it's difficult to say — well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren't quite accurate? Or am I going to spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about?" Pretty bold words from a man whose campaign once said they were “not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” amidst countless of fact checks finding falsehoods in the candidate’s statements. 


This isn't just a bold quote, it's a bold strategy, according to Melissa Harris-Perry. Romney knows he’s having trouble, she explained, and that these debates are crucial to his campaign, so he's trying to “make it seem as though the words Obama are going to say are suspect from the beginning,” she told Politics Nation host Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday, “Therefore, when he has trouble meeting the challenges of the debate, he can say well ‘this guy is just dishonest.’”The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne voiced his surprise at the bold statement, particularly in light of the week's attacks. “The very heart of the [Romney campaign’s] argument this week was this idea that the administration apologized somehow on this terrible embassy attack — they didn’t apologize for America!”A recent poll found that 44 percent of Americans found Obama to be more trustworthy and honest, compared to only 33 percent of Americans who said Romney was.Sharpton, quoting Bill Clinton’s attack on Paul Ryan during his Democratic National Convention speech, quipped, “it takes some brass attacking a guy for what you did.”