Will Mitt Romney Back Down Tonight on His Welfare Attacks?

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Anybody want to offer odds on whether Mitt Romney will repeat his dishonest welfare attack during his big prime time speech tonight? If he does, will he go the cowardly route and soften it up so that it’s marginally defensible? Or will he have the guts to dive straight into the gutter and repeat his bald advertising claims that Obama is “dropping work requirements” and “Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check”?

My prediction: Door #1. He’ll repeat the claims, but in front of a big audience, with the press hanging on his every word, he won’t have the courage to repeat the specific claims he’s already made 6,000 times so far in his TV ads. With the whole nation watching, he’ll pretend that the ads don’t exist and instead offer up something just hazy enough that only the page A12 fact checkers will bother dissecting it. That’s how Mitt usually plays things, after all.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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