Remember that day when Mitt Romney's campaign claimed that it raised more than $10 million in just one day?
Well, the the campaign fundraising reports were submitted to the Federal Elections Commission on Friday, and it turns out: Not so much.
In fact, Romney's presidential campaign raised less than a quarter of the $10.25 it falsely told reporters it raised on May 16.
This isn't a matter of a campaign merely getting some adding wrong, or just doing some run-of-the-mill embellishing. This lie was big, and it was impactful.
As you'll recall, the "claim" ("lie" is more accurate) came at a time when Romney's status as frontrunner was in question, with many critics attacking his health-care record, his speech defending his Massachusetts legislation being panned, and other prominent conservatives assailing his candidacy for other alleged apostasies.
As a result of Romney's claim that he raised $10.25 million in one day at a call-a-thon in Las Vegas (reported as fact by many prominent outlets including Politico, the Washington Post, and others), he instantly reclaimed his position as a formidable frontrunner, with insiders and establishment media types hailing his organization, ability to raise money, and professional operation.
Yet, as speculated here, Romney's claim was plainly false. Specifically, according to official campaign finance records filed on Friday, Romney actually raised on May 16, 2011, $2.4 million, or nearly $8 million less than his campaign's $10.25 million claim. See the FEC page that breaks down his contributions by day here. As you'll see, for May 16, 2011, it shows $2.40 million for Romney. As the chart demonstrates, it was easily the campaign's most prolific day, but still obviously far short of its $10.25 million claim.
Given that the campaign outright lied to reporters about this, it will be interesting to see whether this imbroglio impacts Team Romney's relationships with the press.
Clearly, its credibility has been strained.
To view the Romney campaign finance report in its entirety, click here.