During an hour-long appearance on “Meet the Press,” he answers for a string of flip-flops and says he would have no religious litmus test for nominees. Mitt wept when church ended discrimination

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today that he wept with relief when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormon church, announced a 1978 revelation that the priesthood would no longer be denied to persons of African descent.

Romney’s eyes appeared to fill with tears as he discussed the emotional subject during a high-stakes appearance that he handled with no major blunders.


Watch video of Romney on "Meet the Press," courtesy of BreitbartTV.

“I was anxious to see a change in my church,” said the Republican presidential candidate, appearing for the full hour just two weeks ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses.

“I can remember when I heard about the change being made. I was driving home from — I think it was law school, but I was driving home — going through the Fresh Pond rotary in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I heard it on the radio and I pulled over and literally wept.

“Even to this day, it’s emotional,” Romney went on.

“And so it’s very deep and fundamental in my life and my most core beliefs that all people are children of God. My faith has always told me that. My faith has also always told me that in the eyes of God, every individual was merited the fullest degree of happiness in the hereafter and I had no question that African Americans and blacks generally would have every right and every benefit in the hereafter that anyone else had and that God is no respecter of persons.”

Moderator Tim Russert asked if “it was wrong for your faith to exclude them for as long as it did.”

“I told you exactly where I stand,” Romney said. “My view is that there’s no discrimination in the eyes of God. And I could not have been more pleased than to see the change that occurred.”

During Romney’s first appearance ever on “Meet the Press” he also discussed his changed views on abortion, his stance on immigration (illegal immigrants should “go home eventually”) and defended against charges of flip-flopping.

Rivals pounced on his assertion that a fee — some of which were raised when he was Massachusetts governor — is “different than a tax.”

“These were not broad-based fees,” Romney said. “If they are broad-based, they have a sense — a feeling like a tax. A fee is different than a tax in that it is for a purpose. We had fees that hadn’t been changed for decades.”

Romney said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has passed him in many polls in the GOP presidential race, should apologize for his statement in Foreign Affairs magazine that the Bush administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality.”

“That’s an insult to the president, and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president,” Romney said.

As to whether he will beat Huckabee in Iowa, Romney replied: “I sure hope so — working hard.”

The conservative Romney of the campaign trail was dogged by the more moderate actions of Governor Romney and liberal statements of Senate-candidate Romney. Russert hammered him with videotapes showing a string of reversals and recalibrations, but Romney handled it coolly.

Asked if he could assure voters he would not flip back to positions he held in Massachusetts, Romney replied: “Of course.”

“Tim, if you’re looking for someone who’s never changed any position on any policy, then I’m not your guy,” Romney said. “I do learn from experience. If you want someone who doesn’t learn from experience, who stubbornly takes a position on a particular act and says, ‘Well, I’m never changing my view based on what I’ve learned,’ that doesn’t make sense to me.”

Regarding his flip-flop on abortion rights from the time he was running for office in Massachusetts, Romney said he thinks “almost everyone in this nation” opposes abortion.

“I was always personally opposed to abortion, as I think almost everyone in this nation is,” he said, adding that the question for him was “the role of government.”

Romney said he hopes the U.S. ultimately bans abortion but says the country is not to that point and he is not advocating that.

“The first step in my view is that [abortion rights decision] Roe v. Wade be overturned and ultimately, as an aspirational goal, I would love it if America came to a point, where we are not today, where the people of America would welcome a society that did not have abortion,” he said. “But that’s not where we are. And so I’m not promoting or fighting for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion in all 50 states. I am fighting for an overturning of Roe v. Wade.”

On stem cell research, he said: “I would allow private laboratories and private institutions — as we currently do, and as the president does as well — to use these so-called surplus, or embryos that would be discarded.”

Discussing a guest worker program for illegal immigrants, he said, “They should go home eventually.”

Romney said “of course not” when asked if he would favor a mandatory prison term for an employer who knowingly hired an illegal immigrant. He said he would favor substantial fines and “potentially worse if they were egregious ... offenders.”

The former governor was asked about his decision to become a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association just before he ran for president. “I don’t line up 100 percent with the NRA,” he said. “I don’t see eye to eye with the NRA on every issue.”

Romney was appearing on a series called “Meet the Candidates 2008.” His late father, George W. Romney — auto executive, presidential candidate and Michigan governor — was a guest on “Meet the Press” several times.

Russert said that 31 times in “Meet the Press” history, there have been a parent and child on the broadcast — the Kennedys, the Fords, the Jacksons, the Gores. “The Romneys, now enshrined in ‘Meet the Press’ history.”

“Touches my heart — thanks, Tim,” Romney said at the end.

Early in the show, Romney referred to a view — held by many Mormons — that evangelical Christians are cool to them in part for competitive reasons.

It came up when Russert asked him how he could accept the endorsement of Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University, who issued a statement saying he supports Romney but that Mormons are not Christians — an assertion that is deeply offensive to church members.

“Well, you know, religions are in a competitive battle — they’re competing for souls and adherents,” he said. Later, he repeated: “As I indicated, there are competing faiths in this nation.”

Romney added that he was “delighted” to have the support of Jones. “The great thing, of course, is that our values are the same,” Romney added. “We have Christians and Jews, for instance. They don’t have the same faith, but we certainly have the same Judeo-Christian foundation.”

At one point, Romney said he had not made up his mind whether or not to run based on input from church authorities, and would make governing decisions independently of them.

“I believe very firmly in the principle of free agency — people making their own decisions,” he said.

Asked about the statement in his recent speech that “freedom requires religion,” Romney elaborated: “Long-term, for America to remain a great nation, to lead the world, we must have a recognition of our religious faith. Now that’s, of course, not a particular denomination.”

Russert asked, “Can you be a moral person and be an atheist?”

Romney replied, “Oh, of course. Of course.”

Romney pledged he would have “no litmus test” about faith for nominees to the Supreme Court, or for such jobs as Secretary of Education.

“Of course not,” Romney said.