Rick Perry: Mitt Romney 'Has Been On Opposite Sides On A Lot Of Issues'
GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry took some shots at fellow contender Mitt Romney during a local New Hampshire radio interview on Friday.
As reported by MSNBC, Perry told radio station WKXL that the former Massachusetts governor "has been on opposite sides on a lot of issues." Perry also said, "Consistency I think is very important." He continued, "you don't have to wake up in the morning and wonder is Rick Perry going to be the same guy in two years that he was two years ago. And the answer to that is yup, he will be." Perry's criticism of Romney repeated a popular refrain: that Romney is perceived as a flip-flopper.
Perry also said of Romney, "He was for banning handguns, now he's Mr. Second Amendment. He was the father of Obamacare."
Per Reuters, Perry inquired during the interview, "The issue is who are you really going to trust to stand up and be consistent?"
A Romney spokesperson provided MSNBC with a response to Perry's comments:
"Rick Perry is a desperate candidate who will try anything to deflect attention away from his liberal policy on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and his advocacy for turning Social Security over to the states in an attempt to prop up his sinking campaign. Mitt Romney is a conservative businessman who is focused on the important issues in this country: how he will get Americans back to work and turn around the economy."
The Texas governor certainly isn't the first Republican presidential candidate to attack Romney as inconsistent. On Friday, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman released a web advertisement that compared Romney to a backflipping wind-up toy gorilla. The video shows various clips of Romney expressing differing positions on issues including abortion, gun control, and a controversial Ohio anti-union bill.
In addition, HuffPost's Lucia Graves reports that Romney has seemingly changed his tune on climate change:
WASHINGTON -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy this summer, telling a crowd in Manchester, N.H., that humans are at least somewhat responsible for climate change. Now Think Progress reports he's reversing his position, arguing "we don't know what's causing climate change."
Per Graves' report, Romney stated in June, "I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that."
Perry was confronted by a member of a local Tea Party following his radio interview. ABC News reports:
After recording a radio interview with WKXL, Perry was approached by Bill Higgins, an elderly man from Massachusetts and member of the Northborough Tea Party. Higgins expressed the Tea Party group's concern that the Texas governor was weak on immigration because of his support of in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants in Texas.Perry said the federal government's failure to secure the border forced the state of Texas to deal with illegal immigrants in a different way than other states, but he assured Higgins that, should he become president, he'd work to secure the border.
As for Perry's own stance on the issue of climate change, he told a group of supporters, "I don't put myself in the ignorant category. I put myself in the, you know, thoughtful skeptic."
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First Posted: 10/29/11 02:02 AM ET Updated: 10/29/11 02:17 AM ET