TPM2012

You Call This ‘Shilling’? Romney Confronted With 2008 Clip On Fox (VIDEO)

You Call This ‘Shilling’? Romney Confronted With 2008 Clip On Fox (VIDEO)

Fox News “shilling” for Mitt Romney? Not exactly.

Rick Santorum, himself a former Fox News contributor, protested the network’s supposed preference for the GOP frontrunner in a radio appearance Tuesday, but Romney was visibly uncomfortable when questioned on Megyn Kelly’s show Wednesday. The host confronted Romney with a video clip from 2008 in which he says, “No, no, I like mandates” after being asked whether he “backed away from mandates on a national basis.”

Romney offered a tepid defense of himself, mostly by retreading ground he has covered throughout this campaign: No, he said, I don’t favor imposing the Massachusetts health care law on the rest of the nation. Yes, he said, I will immediately destroy the existing national health care law that was based on my Massachusetts plan once I get into the White House.

Standard stuff, but Romney looked very uncomfortable when confronted with the old clip, and he never really refuted it.

Watch:

Kelly did, at least, let Romney get cut off by a break while he was awkwardly squirming in response to the 2008 clip.

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