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Romney: Obama, Michael Moore encouraged Democrats to vote Santorum out of fear
Mitt Romney said that Democrats like President Obama and Michael Moore were trying to "play mischief in the Republican Party" by encouraging votes for Rick Santorum because "they don't want to face me in the fall," during an interview with Fox News slated to air Wednesday night.
But Romney said Republicans "saw through" the ploy, elevating him to victory in his home state.
"They got the news from Michael Moore to Barack Obama’s team to, frankly, Rick Santorum as well –saying, ‘Go play mischief in the Republican Party. Vote against Mitt Romney and try to give this to Rick Santorum,'" Romney said. "They don’t want to face me in the fall. They would rather face Rick Santorum, so they came in large numbers and voted for Rick. I think that was a huge mistake on his part. Republicans saw right through that. And saw if Barack Obama wants Rick Santorum to run against, we’re not going to give him Rick Santorum to run against.”
Romney was then asked by host Bill O'Reilly if Democrats voted for Santorum because they didn't want to run against him in November.
“That’s what someone like Michael Moore said on the air," Romney said. "And a number of Democrats - I saw a piece on the news where they interviewed people who had voted as Democrats. They said, ‘Yeah, we’re trying to give this to Rick Santorum because we want to stop Mitt Romney.’ And of course there has also been ads by the UAW and other organized labor groups against m. They’re trying to sway the votes inside the Republican primary against me and you know that’s okay. I understand the nature of the process. I think it was a mistake for Rick Santorum to join and leave with them and to do robocalls saying, ‘Hey go vote against Mitt Romney, vote with Rick Santorum.’”
The liberal filmmaker, who hails from Flint, Michigan, told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow Tuesday that many of his friends were voting for Santorum to prolong the Republican nominating process.
“I have to tell you a lot of my Democratic friends will vote for Santorum in something they are calling Operation Hilarity,” Moore said.
The Romney campaign has seized on the effort to court Democrats in the GOP primary, releasing a pair of web ads Wednesday celebrating Romney's victory. One depicts Obama "campaign officials" fretting over Romney's win despite their effort in the state, while the other features Democrats arguing that a vote for Santorum would weaken Romney.
Nevertheless, Romney acknowledged that inter-party attacks might be hurting Republicans.
“I would love to have an acclamation that everybody just agrees on the best nominee but that doesn’t happen that’s not the real world. You have to battle you have to earn it. You have to work for it and we are doing just that. The other campaigns are doing the same thing. I recognize the process is what it is and I’ll fight through this process and hopefully be able to get the support of our party and then going on focusing increasingly on President Obama," Romney said.
But the former governor argued that the tough-fought process was making him "tougher" and predicted the party would eventually coalesce around his candidacy.
"If you get attacked by someone, it doesn’t make you better off. It toughens you up and there are two sides to that – one we have exposed a lot of the attacks, I am sure the Obama people will pick up on them and run with it themselves, but I think I’m tougher as a result of this, I think the other guys are as well- we’ll come united once this is all over, and we are going to get behind our nominee," Romney said.
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