On Tuesday night, Mitt Romney went after the Obama administration for Vice-President Joe Biden’s “chains” remark, choosing to interpret it as an intentional reference to slavery, rather than giving Biden the benefit of the doubt and simply adding it to his long list of gaffes. During a speech in Ohio, Romney said Biden’s comments are indicative of the negative tone Obama’s taken. “His campaign and his surrogates have made wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the Presidency,” said Romney. “Another outrageous charge came a few hours ago in Virginia. And the White House sinks a little bit lower.”
According to Business Insider, Romney concluded by saying, “So, Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.”
Of course, Romney surrogates have been known to make wild and reckless accusations as well, and the Obama campaign was quick to label Romney a hypocrite, saying, “Governor Romney’s comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange coming at a time when he’s pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false.”
As Politico reports, Obama campaign officials mocked Republicans’ “faux outrage” throughout the day and called the remark a metaphor. While speaking in Virginia on Monday night, Biden clarified that instead of “unchained” he had meant to say “unshackled” — a term he picked up from Paul Ryan and John Boehner’s remarks about the economy. “The last time these guys unshackled the economy, to use their term, they put the middle class in shackles,” Biden said. “That’s how we got where we are.”
It’s hard to believe that just days after the Romney-Ryan campaign declared it would be conducting a “substantive campaign” focused on the issues, both sides have already been reduced to name-calling over Biden’s bimonthly gaffe.
