Mitt Romney Hands Cash To A Struggling Supporter In South Carolina

Mitt Romney gave a supporter a handful of cash after she told him she was struggling financially. CNN reports:

An aide said the GOP candidate gave the supporter "what he had on him" -- about $50 or $60.

The woman, Ruth Williams, met Romney earlier in the week and told him she was having trouble making ends meet. On Saturday, Romney recognized Williams while he was shaking hands with supporters after a rally, an aide said.

Romney spoke to the woman and handed her several bills.

"He was kind to me," Williams said. "He held onto me and he made Gov. [Nikki] Haley and them come see about me."

Williams, 55, said she was praying for a way to pay her bills when she saw Romney's campaign bus on the street. She followed it to the airport where an aide directed her to a rally later that day. There, she met Romney. Williams called it a message from God, and has been volunteering with the campaign since.

The event is the latest in a series of unusual exchanges involving money during Romney's campaign, contributing to the image of him as a multimillionaire that's out of touch with average Americans.

At an early campaign stop in Colorado, Romney tried to pay a young boy who offered him an origami-style folded $1 bill for good luck. Romney fished through his wallet but could only find $100 bills. (He later dug up a $5 bill and gave it to the boy.)

At a stop in Florida, while discussing unemployment and a struggling economy with voters, he chimed in, "I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." Though meant as a joke, many criticized the remark as bad form.

Most famously, Romney challenged Texas Governor Rick Perry to a $10,000 dollar bet during a GOP presidential debate in Iowa. He said he'd wager $10,000 to settle a dispute over his oft-attacked healthcare record and support for an individual mandate. "Rick, I'll tell you what: 10,000 bucks?" Romney said, holding out his hand. Opponents jumped on the wager as proof Romney was out of touch where financial issues are concerned.

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Comments

[stella soprano]

10:03 PM on 01/21/2012

in the first place, i don't think you're allowed to pass out cash as a candidate. and secondly i don't know which is more sad; mr romney thinking $60 would help this woman in any significant way, or the fact that it just might have.

[phal4875]

05:44 PM on 01/19/2012

Attempted humor alert! This story is false. Romney bought the woman's child so that someone could work on his lawn in New Hampshire.

[zach800]

08:26 AM on 01/18/2012

PUBLICITY STUNT

[asherbranerr]

11:54 PM on 01/17/2012

"He was kind to me," Williams said. "He held onto me and he made Gov. [Nikki] Haley and them come see about me."

(And make sure i have an ID so i Vote.) Would be considered buying a vote?

[myplenny]

10:14 PM on 01/17/2012

Looks as if the sane one quit left it to the village idiots.

[DidITweetThat]

08:49 PM on 01/17/2012

Um... isn't that illegal?

(Or as Michelle Bachmann calls it, a great way to win the Iowa Straw Poll)

[Ilan Chico]

08:38 PM on 01/17/2012

No offense to all the ridiculous posters on this article but it sounds like you are all very jealous of people born in to wealth or those who simply have it. Since when was it a crime in this country to be rich? I am personally not rich but I don't hate rich people for being successful. I strive to achieve more. I don't expect handouts and rich people to pay my bills for me.

[myplenny]

10:15 PM on 01/17/2012

I don hatet the no good crooks just tired of their robbing us.

[Ilan Chico]

10:51 PM on 01/17/2012

Mitt romney robbed you? :)

[wordshll]

10:49 AM on 01/18/2012

Your ethics are superior to many on this site. Hopefully God swill bless you with great wealth someday.

Many look for the bad side of the ones they don't like, while overlooking the faults of the ones they do like and support. They often don't even know how obviously prejudiced they are.

Have a nice day Ilan Chico.

[sherpeace]

05:32 PM on 01/17/2012

Why not a hand up instead of a hand out? Because that means allowing our govt. to do it's job. Our govt. is there to represent us and give us a hand up: education, unemployment ins. (until we find a job), medical care, etc.
The Repugs think handing handing a homeless person a dollar or praying for someone at church should replace real help that Americans need and paid for.
They want Corporate Socialism!!!

[jferengi]

11:49 PM on 01/17/2012

Mitt has been very generous with donations to charities. He has donated millions of dollars.
When he headed up the 2002 Olympics, he did not accept any salary, plus he donated $1 million.
As governor of Massachusetts he did not take the governor's salary.
During his previous presidential run he offered to not accept the presidential salary and to just donate it.
Contrast what Mitt has done for charity to the percentages given by the Clintons and the Gores and John Kerry.
Try to be fair even if you dont agree with his politics. No need to be so envious of successful people who have worked hard to make a lot of money.
The 99% should be grateful to live in a wonderful country where they can work they way into the 1%.

[gcoundou]

10:12 AM on 01/18/2012

you make an excellent point, I agree with you! It is remarkable to me that liberals still find a way to criticize this act of kindness from Romney, and the hatred and envy towards the 1% is really indicative of class warfare, very destructive,and does not help anyone.

[phal4875]

05:47 PM on 01/19/2012

The 99% almost never work their way into the 1%. Romney did not. He started as one of the 1% and remained there for life.

[sherpeace]

12:11 AM on 01/18/2012

Hog wash! If you want to help the American people, give them what they paid for: SS, medical care, a tax return. And don't try to tell me he has done more than the Clintons, and esp. not more than the Carters! You would be wrong!
As far as being able to be part of the 1%, I wrote about that earlier. That will NEVER happen. You have to be born into generations of billionaires.
The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer and so is the middle class. You can not deny it!

[wordshll]

10:59 AM on 01/18/2012

The old tried and true way to gain support and win has been to turn the masses against the wealthier class since there are fewer wealthy. Many of the poorer class of people will greedily say yes. They should share their wealth with us. The sad truth is after the election, or over throw of the government is over the ones who fed them this line of Bull Dukey will treat them like peasants. They will become even poorer and more enslaved than before.

Knowledge, and education, and a food hard work ethic is the only way for most poor folks to ever get ahead. So dream on. If you think those who started the OCUPPY movement are really for you, then you got rocks in your head.

[JamesThomasBand]

01:14 PM on 01/17/2012

So I guess the rest of the 99%, should start begging on the streets. Hoping for a rich person
to stop, while he is running for office and just maybe he will give us a few dollars.
I think this might be Willard Mitt Romney's vision of the future for America.

[wordshll]

11:02 AM on 01/18/2012

The 99 per cent should get their lazy butts in Church, in School, off the streets, and they should start looking to improve their lot in life. Waiting for some politician to give it to you will not get the job done. The only winner there will be the politicians who get reelected. It is a fact of life!

[phal4875]

05:55 PM on 01/19/2012

You are quite the wordsmith: "lazy butts in Church, in School, off the streets." Is that what the average person is to you - lazy, non-church-going, uneducated, and loitering?

[LATRE]

04:26 AM on 01/17/2012

Notice how Romney is nice enough to give a handout to a Lady, but not nice enough to give that lady, who is a volunteer for his campaign, a paying job.

[jsgaetano]

02:01 AM on 01/17/2012

If conservatives get their way, we'll all have to beg Mitt Romney for a few bucks.

[jferengi]

12:00 AM on 01/18/2012

Ridiculous. If conservatives have their way, people will be rewarded for their hard work instead of being punished with a crazy tax system that even the IRS does not understand.
If conservatives have their way, congressmen and women will have to read bills before voting on them.
If conservatives have their way, we will not have to listen to stupid remarks like, "We have to pass a bill to find out what is in it."
If conservatives have their way, we would work to become energy independent.
If conservatives have their way, we would not allow GM, the company that we bailed out with millions of our tax dollars, to ship thousands of jobs to China by sending the Chevy Volt for development there.
If conservatives have their way, we would not allow AIG to spend millions of dollars on giant bonuses for their executives when they took our tax dollars to bail out their company.
If conservatives have their way, we would not give more millions of tax dollars to companies, like Solyndra, that are already sinking and cannot pay back the money they already owe.

[jsgaetano]

05:06 AM on 01/18/2012

((If conservati­ves have their way, people will be rewarded for their hard work instead of being punished with a crazy tax system that even the IRS does not understand­.))

Really? Because consevatives have had complete control of the US Government for over 30 years. And all the problems conservatives whine about just keep getting worse, and the legislation they write keeps making all the existing problems worse, and creates even more problems.

Conservatives fear a world with no one to blame, because then they'd be forced to accept responsibility for their failure and fraud of their ideology.

((If conservati­ves have their way, congressme­n and women will have to read bills before voting on them))

Well they haven't. I can't see what's been stopping them...

((If conservati­ves have their way, we would work to become energy independen­t))

That's hilarious. Conservatives are the ones waging war against renewable energy, and have always been waging war against energy independence.

((If conservati­ves have their way, we would not allow GM, the company that we bailed out with millions of our tax dollars, to ship thousands of jobs to China by sending the Chevy Volt for developmen­t there))

Right, because conservatives would have allowed GM to go under, for the sole reason of destroying the UAW. That's doubly hilarious, because conservatives are destroyng labor laws all over the nation, and have been shipping US jobs overseas since St. Reagan was in charge.

((If conservati­ves have their way, we would not allow AIG to spend millions of dollars on giant bonuses for their executives when they took our tax dollars to bail out their company.))

Really? Then what was stopping you? Conservatives were the ones who made the bailouts, and who said the bonuses had to be paid because to do otherwise was socialism. You're not turning into a communist, are you?

((If conservati­ves have their way, we would not give more millions of tax dollars to companies, like Solyndra, that are already sinking and cannot pay back the money they already owe))

Conservatives made TONS of money from Solyndra. So it's hilarious you're talking about that. Conservatives also make TRILLION$ in Big Gubment handouts. Once again, you pretent conservatives haven't been doing everything you're whining about.

[wordshll]

11:04 AM on 01/18/2012

Why do you say that? Most folks claim he is a Liberal like you. So which is he, a Conservative, a Moderate, or a Liberal?

[jsgaetano]

03:21 PM on 01/18/2012

LOL... Romney is definetly not a liberal... and most certainly is nothing like me.

Robamney is a conservative, conservatives are going to have to live with it.

[phal4875]

06:00 PM on 01/19/2012

It depends on the weather, the time of day, the season, and the office for which he is running. He was a liberal when running for the Senate in 1994, a moderate when running for governor in 2002, and a conservative when running for president in 2007 to 2012. He is anything and everything to all people at one time or another. Just view him as living, breathing Rorschach test.

[turneriver]

01:52 AM on 01/17/2012

One of the perks of the hereditary rich (and Romney, though he "pirated" the real big money, started out a rich kid), is noblesse oblige...the the small pleasure of throwing coins to the impoverished crowds. This is Romney's thing.

[myplenny]

10:17 PM on 01/17/2012

Old man Rockefeller gave dimes

[phal4875]

06:03 PM on 01/19/2012

Inflation.

[Zilo]

11:05 PM on 01/16/2012

This story has *such* racist comments on Fox News...

http://nation.foxnews.com/nbc-news/2012/01/16/romney-gives-struggling-black-woman-cash-nbc-news-calls-him-racist

Makes my skin crawl.

[crazybobmt]

09:40 PM on 01/16/2012

bought one 250 million to go

[Blodgesmudge]

09:27 PM on 01/16/2012

Romney should be jailed for buying votes

[phal4875]

06:03 PM on 01/19/2012

He should be jailed for being who he is.