Video: Romney whisper during debate sets off firestorm David Edwards and Nick Juliano

Published: Friday January 25, 2008



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Print This Email This UPDATE: MSNBC tells RAW 'audio issues' behind overheard whisper Did Mitt Romney have someone whispering sweet nothings in his ear about Ronald Reagan's tax policy during Thursday night's Republican Debate? That's the question plenty of viewers are asking after the MSNBC broadcast. Moderator Tim Russert asked Romney if he would "do what Ronald Reagan did in 1983" to fix Social Security. Immediately after Russert's question, someone can be heard whispering, "He raised taxes." It's unclear whether Romney heard the voice, but he quickly answered, "I'm not going to raise taxes." Romney's campaign did not immediately respond to RAW STORY 's request for clarification on the mysterious voice, but an MSNBC spokesman said "audio issues" were the source of the trouble. "We had some audio issues and Gov. Romney's mike wasn't working momentarily. Simple as that," MSNBC VP for Communications Jeremy Gaines said in a one-line e-mail response to questions about overheard whisper. The response leaves some questions unanswered, such as, Whose voice did viewers hear, and why did MSNBC apparently scrub a reference to the Whisper from its Web site? RAW STORY has sent a follow up request for this information. but some bloggers are accusing the former Massachusetts Governor of shenanigans. "Some have speculated that the whisper is a prompt for Russert to add on the rest of the question, "raised taxes," to what Russert said about Reagan, but listen to how incredibly fast the whisper comes after Russert finishes his sentence. Seems mighty fast to have been someone trying to get Russert to finish the question - how does the whisperer know that Russert is done? It sounds much more like a prompt for Mitt," wrote blogger Steward Rhodes. The incident reminded Rhodes and others of a 2004 debate in which President Bush appeared to have some sort of transmitter or other device underneath his suit jacket. Commenters on MNSBC's First Read blog also noticed the incident, although the network apparently removed a post referencing the whisper from its Web site. RAW STORY enhanced the audio in the following video to make the whisper easier to hear.



The following thumbnail screenshot of MSNBC's First Read was posted at the liberal forum, Democratic Underground, before MSNBC took it down. Click for full size. DEVELOPING...



