Everyone knows she said it. Twitter was on fire yesterday with the youpeople hashtag trending.
Yet ABC is helpfully inventing a 'controversy' by asking 'Did Ann Romney Say You People'?
On their website this morning in a news roundup they claim there's a 'debate' online about it and ask
You People? – What Did Ann Romney Say About Mitt’s Taxes on GMA? – There’s a Debate Online.
Was it – “And we’ve given all people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how — you know, how we live our life.”
Or was it – “And we’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how — you know, how we live our life.”
Our ruling after reviewing the original audio is that she did not include the “you.”
Notice the two versions of the quotes they provide. Then they give a link where you can
'judge for yourself'. It goes to another ABC link, with the video, and the text has been rewritten to include a third quote - not matching either of the above two. So, they link to a story, written by themselves, with text that they have transcribed, as proof to show she did not say 'you people'.
She added, “And we’ve given all our people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how — you know, how we live our life.”
*There’s some controversy as to what Romney actually said — some think she said “all you people,” but it’s unclear based on how she said it.*
What does 'our people' even mean? Why would anyone use such a phrase. If anything 'our people' would refer to the Romney's 'people', the ones who are working so feverishly to keep Mitt's secret taxes secret.
The foundation of her argument that Romney doesn't need to release his tax returns is that we should take it on faith that he is a good person,
Romney argued that her husband is a good person because he took no salary while he ran the Olympics, made no money as the governor of Massachusetts, and donates 10 percent of his income to the Mormon church.
“That’s where his soul is,” she said. ”That’s who he is as a person. He’s a very generous person.”
Well, if you people believe that Mormonism is a church, and giving your money to it is 'charity' then maybe that argument holds some water. But it isn't, and it doesn't, and I happen to not agree that diverting your money to causes that
primarily promote your own religion, in orider to avoid paying taxes and enabling everyone to benefit makes you a good person.
And as Paul Krugman said in his column today, the Romney's think they deserve to live by different rules than the rest of 'us people'.
There are plenty of very rich Americans who have a sense of perspective, who take pride in their achievements without believing that their success entitles them to live by different rules.
But Mitt Romney, it seems, isn’t one of those people. And that discovery may be an even bigger issue than whatever is hidden in those tax returns he won’t release.
And this is a new, Orwellian, Pravda-esque low for the Fourth Estate.