Romney Has Given Two Versions Of His 9/11 Experience

[Tx4obama]

Romney's description of his 9/11 experience in a speech today differs in one detail from his recollection in his 2002 memoir. A Romney spokesman did not respond to a BuzzFeed request of clarification of how Romney learned of the attacks.

(Previously) "I was on the phone to Salt Lake City, doing a radio interview. The interviewer interrupted to say there were reports that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I hung up and turned on the small TV in the office."

(Today) "Someone rushed into our office and said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I turned the small TV on desk there and watched in shock as flames and smoke erupted from the north tower."

-snip-

Full post with video here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/romneys-has-given-two-version-of-his-911-experie

Also, didn't Romney previously say when he was working for the Olympics he NEVER left Utah the 'whole time' for something like two or three years? Today he said he was in Washington, D.C. and then drove to Alexandria, Virginia.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

1. wow...this is huge ! So, he is saying that his office (today's version) was in DC? Yikes...

something is wrong with the man...more than we thought

[onenote]

16. Is there a link to his claiming he never left Utah?

I know he has claimed (falsely) that he didn't spend time on Bain matters while he was working on the Olympics, but he also stated (truthfully) that he spent a lot of time meeting with the federal government for support for the Olympics and those meetings almost certainly were in DC. So it doesn't seem like a smoking gun for him to say he was in DC on 9/11

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. I don't know, hoping OP responds on that. This may be not much.....BUT, it does smell fishy, for

sure. Geez, if anyone in the whole human race was writing a book, and you had enough space to mention
9-11, you would 100% surely write about the experience fully and the "smell of war". You wouldn't just
pass it over in a blurb. We do know one thing for sure. He did have two stories about who told him
that something happened....the first, the interviewer, the second, "someone rushed in". do you smell any fish?

[Angry Dragon]

2. Willard ........ the Great American Liar and Fraud

How can anyone believe a word this man said??
His running partner is just as bad if not worse (wurst)

[Ezlivin]

3. One for each tower

He still has to come up with one for WTC 7.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. the washington dc part...not in the article....did you hear him say it on tv today?

[Tx4obama]

5. Yes he said it on TV today, video below

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. "I could smell burning fuel, and concrete, and steel. It was a smell of war."

How would Romney know what war smells like? Sounds like Mitt is trying to convince people he has had a war experience, a service record.

[hollysmom]

53. I remember what it smelled like, it hung in the air for days - but

that was the trade center and I did not work far from there, I am not sure how much debris there was with the pentagon,

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. If he had to tell the complete truth about anything, I think he would short-circuit

Whether it's a whopper or a little one, he's got to lie. He can't help it. It's in his programming.

[Avalux]

7. "If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember anything".

- Mark Twain.

Lies have a way of catching up with a person; there's no way they can possibly remember all the lies they tell, and are bound to forget and make up new ones. Hence, Mitt's recollection.

I bet neither one of his accounts are true.

[Cha]

17. Romney forgot what he wrote in his damn book..

and wanted to be a part of 9/11 so bad he just makes up shite as he goes along.

He should really be called out on this..it is Huge. First, he says he won't talk today and then he does and as usual insults PBO and LIES.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Wait a second. Couldn't this "office" in the previous version be the "office" in the second, today

version? Just trying to see how both could be true. After all this time, he still remembers that the tv was small. huh.

Both could be true, except whether it was the interviewer on the phone or the "someone" rushing in to tell them. If that's it, it wouldn't be THAT big a deal. Of course, today, he made a big stink about meeting on "security"...if that important, why is he wasting time to give an interview.

wonder if more details in the book.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. like this comment: To be fair, that was Romney 8.0 and this one is 16.3.

[Cha]

19. One comment said it was "Getting Hot on

Twitter, too" Good!

[TroyD]

11. Only 2?

I'm disappointed.

I usually expect at least 10 versions of something from Romney.

[jberryhill]

54. Seriously, and in one of them he actually hi-jacks a plane!

[Blue Idaho]

12. Call me when he gets to the one where he rushes into the smoke filled twin towers

to rescue a squad of fire fighters...

I'm sure that recollection is coming soon.

[Retrograde]

45. I think that was Ryan

Do these guys just make things up for the sake of making things up? I know everybody wants to be the hero of his or her own story, but most people have at least a nodding acquaintance with reality.

9/11 was such a seminal event for the vast majority of American adults that where they were and what they did is etched in their minds. Sure, with age and the passage of time little details may become blurred, but the basics stay the same.

[TroyD]

13. Nixon and Bush Sr. both gave multiple accounts of 11/22/63

Nixon and Bush Sr. both gave varied accounts of what they were up to on the JFK assassination day.

And there may be reasons for that, but that's another topic . . .

[Cha]

14. SHOCKING! Romney Lying, AGAIN!!!

What a sad sad pathetic little man.

[LiberalArkie]

15. I am surprised he only has 1 dad named George, I would expect if pushed he would admit to a

different set of parents. He never seems to have a single set of facts.

[AverageJoe90]

22. LMAO......

Good one!

[SmittynMo]

18. His memory is about as short as his,,,,,,,

________ (fill in the blank)

[theKed]

21. ...

...released tax history?

[SmittynMo]

46. ....

Excellent. You win !!!!!!

[CreekDog]

20. he was doing an interview at 6:45am?

interesting.

and after the first plane hit, i don't think most of us were thinking terrorism. that was after the second plane.

hmmm.

[Tx4obama]

25. He wasn't in Utah, he was in Washington D.C. n/t

[CreekDog]

30. that's what I mean, why would they broadcast a radio interview at 6:45am?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. excellent point...but maybe it was taped. trying to think of a way both could be true. the

first story, he doesn't say where he actually was. Unless there's more in print about that day? I have been googling..but nothing yet.

[thevoiceofreason]

23. K&R

[DemsUnited]

24. minor memory lapse UNLESS he really is lying about being in DC

& driving to Alexandria & passing the Pentagon & smelling burning fuel ... When he was in Utah. That would be a "marathon" whopper (heh heh) and hugely damaging.

But I just can not believe he would be that stupid.

[beac]

44. Next he'll be telling us

Paul Ryan called from the summit of a 14er to tell him about it.

[jberryhill]

55. He loves the smell of napalm in the morning

[MADem]

26. Such a fucking liar--wonder if the "small" TV was 46 or 54 inches....!

No mas pantalones, indeed!!!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

34. that's what I thought. The fact that the TV was "small" was the most important thing about the

two renditions.

[Booster]

40. Why would you even mention that it was a "small" tv. Elitist.

[MADem]

41. Poor Mitt--he was in an "OFFICE"---Ewwwwww! He'd much prefer to "watch TV" from his custom-made

barcolounger covered in the fur of a white tiger, in his home theater that is twice the size of Carnegie Hall!

[angstlessk]

27. One does NOT forget where they were when the attacks took place..I can tell you EVERYTHING

about that Tuesday morning...how I was notified...how I started to my other job, listening to the radio as I drove...then turned around to go to my mothers house in case she was freaked out...one does not forget, unless one lies for the sake of lying?

[Tx4obama]

28. I was at my grandmother's house in Illinois saying my goodbyes fixin to head back to Texas

and all of a sudden my nitwit cousin from next door come storming into the house and told us to turn on the TV because the 'WHITE HOUSE' was on fire.

[salin]

37. I had just started typing a major

proposal. Had turned the radio on and heard about the first crash - and there was great confusion as to what had happened. I went to the family room where a family member was having coffee with a friend and we turned on the tv and started watching... and watched with horror the chaos surrounding the second airplane crash into one of the towers. We sat watching for hours. We had a relative who had just left her job as a corp lawyer working the building a couple of weeks earlier; the family friend had a daughter doing business that week in the shadows of the World Trade Center - and she was rather frantic until she received word that her daughter was fine. We watched in even greater horror as the towers collapsed.

Point is the moment is indelibly sealed in each of our minds. The story I wrote above is unchanged from what I would have written 11 years ago. The only difference is that I would have had more small details and nuance per those details 11 years ago. Big parts of the story wouldn't change.

It isn't something one would normally lie about - or embellish - unless as you say one is conditioned to lie, and always is looking for a way to make a new opportunity - so retelling isn't about reexperiencing, but is about repackaging per taking advantage of that opportunity (in this case trying to look some how... ??? ) Strange thing to lie about, unless as you say, you just lie per normal course of events.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. how true

It isn't something one would normally lie about - or embellish - unless as you say one is conditioned to lie, and always is looking for a way to make a new opportunity - so retelling isn't about reexperiencing, but is about repackaging per taking advantage of that opportunity (in this case trying to look some how... ??? ) Strange thing to lie about, unless as you say, you just lie per normal course of events.

But, why not put this close-up experience in your book? would have spiced it up. I would have put it in a book...it's interesting and a first hand account (if true).

show us your 9-11 flight tickets, romney !

[Drunken Irishman]

29. Hard to imagine someone forgetting exactly what they were doing. I haven't...

And I was young. So, I was more likely than he was to forget.

I was in the shower, getting ready for school, when my mom came pounding on the bathroom door telling me the WTC had been attacked and to get out of the shower fast. I did. I went to the kitchen, where my grandma and mom were watching the coverage. It blew me away. I then went to school. I remember sitting in class, the TV was on, we were watching the coverage and I noticed one of the towers started to collapse. I yelled out that the tower had collapsed and everyone looked at me like I was lying. Some even said I didn't know what I was talking about ... I don't even think the guys on TV knew the tower had collapsed. And then, when the smoke vanished, it became clear one tower was gone. Everyone was gasping. I remember hearing of car bombs in Philadelphia and a plane heading for the White House ... it was madness.

I'm not gonna lie, that night, when I sat there watching TV all alone, I was scared. I've never been that scared in my life. I remember asking my mom if we were going to be okay and she said yes, but you could tell she didn't know, either.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

33. wow...very moving perspective from a young person at the time. thanks DI. Watching the coverage

re-run of that day from Today show with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer....they were amazingly calm. Not the good kind of calm like Cronkite when Kennedy got killed (if you saw that clip). They just seemed like total un-journalistic acquaintances.. No human emotion coming out of them whatsoever. It seemed un-human to me. Surely, surely they were freaking out..but they had zero emotion....zero.

you can lay that bad memory of your class treating you like you were lying to rest. YOU were right. I saw the coverage this morning - Matt and Katie were a step behind on that one too.

[HopeHoops]

32. Two versions? Well, at least in that respect he's consistent.

[gkhouston]

35. Strange. He doesn't mention how he felt when he heard the Federal buildings were being evacuated,

nor does he refer to the horrific traffic jam that ensued from evacuating the Capitol while the Roosevelt Bridge was closed.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

36. I worked in DC shortly after..people told me there was an evacuation plan in effect. If

you wanted to drive south, you had to drive north. I don't even know how you would get to alexandria. north, west, south, and then east....and you wouldn't have driven by the Pentagon...unless you could smell it in Alexandria

[gkhouston]

50. I lived in the DC area at the time and don't remember anyone talking about the smell.

And yes... it would have been north, west, south, and then east... it would have taken a long time, possibly within earshot of sirens for a lot of the trip. The fire trucks and ambulances had to to their best to navigate that traffic jam and they didn't move much faster than the regular traffic.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

42. unfortunately...most all of this is debunked

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865559574/What-Mitt-Romneys-response-to-Sept-11-attacks-can-tell-us-about-his-approach-to-crisis-management.html?pg=all
SALT LAKE CITY — Cindy Gillespie knew something was up when her boss, Mitt Romney, stopped talking about the upcoming 2002 Winter Olympics in a phone radio interview as he sat in a Washington, D.C., office.

Instead, the head of the Salt Lake Games was fielding questions from a radio host trying to sort out reports of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

Curious about what she was hearing through the thin walls of her small office, Gillespie went into the room where Romney was talking on the phone and he motioned for her to turn on the television. As they watched shaky images of a plane heading toward the twin towers, Romney ended the radio interview and he and Gillespie debated whether it was a small plane that flew off course or a passenger jet.

That was settled when they watched what was clearly a passenger jet slam into the second World Trade Center tower. Then came erroneous reports of bombs exploding at the Defense Department, Pentagon and the State Department.

Neither of them knew, or discussed, at that moment what the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would mean for the Olympics fewer than five months away. But more than a decade later, many of those who worked with Romney after he took over the....more at link

[sofa king]

43. So he lied about turning on the fucking television?

Unbelievable. Romney is so damned dishonest, it's the little things that blow my mind now.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

49. haha no, he lied about how he found out. first time, the interviewer told him, second time

"someone rushed in". lying dipshit

[sofa king]

56. He had his assistant turn on the television.

According to that account you provided above:

Curious about what she was hearing through the thin walls of her small office, Gillespie went into the room where Romney was talking on the phone and he motioned for her to turn on the television.

That turns into "I turned on the television," in Romney's own accounts. Because his nameless drone assistant is merely an extension of his own will. That is so deeply narcissistic that I don't know where to begin.

My reply above should have said, "So he lied about turning on the fucking television, too?!?"

[K Gardner]

58. Good find. n/t

[SmittynMo]

47. I too, remember EVERYTHING that day.

So did my wife. I suspect most of us remember that day. Rmoney is an airhead

[anneboleyn]

48. I love BuzzFeed

[Firebrand Gary]

51. This guy is a pathological liar.

His whole take on realty is odd kilter. I am starting to wonder if he has a mental illness, seriously? He lies about everything!

[burrowowl]

52. Kick!

[K Gardner]

57. You know, I wondered when I watched that b/s statement if it was actually TRUE.. it seemed just

a bit too "perfect" a retelling, too perfect a story.