Ann Romney made her her first appearance on ABC’s The View on Thursday, and played nice with what her husband called its “sharp tongued” female hosts. As Mitt Romney explained to wealthy donors in Boca Raton on May 17, The View would be among several “high-risk” TV talk shows the candidate would avoid “because of the five women on it. Only one is conservative, and four are sharp-tongued and not conservative.” Proving his anxiety was a real concern of the campaign’s, the camp cancelled his impending appearance on the show this past weekend due to scheduling issues, and sent out Ann Romney to face the battlefield alone.
Ann Romney came prepared to answer for the “sharp tongued” remark by joking, “No, he said sharp and young.” She also did her best to defend her husband’s policies, and the highlight of the interview was when co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked Ann Romney a question on Mormonism and military service.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: As first lady, if you get the job, it’s going to entail a lot of things, and one of those things is going to be talking to the mothers whose children are coming home in bags, you know, from wars. Now, I know — I believe that your religion doesn’t allow you to go fight.ANN ROMNEY: No, that’s not correct. We have many, many members of our faith that are serving in armed services.GOLDBERG: Okay, um, I say that because when I read about your husband, what I had read, and maybe you can correct this is that the reason that he didn’t serve in Vietnam was because it was against the religion. That’s what we–that’s what I read.ROMNEY: No, that’s not correct. He was serving his mission and you know my five sons have also served missions. None served in the military. None served in the military, but I do have one son that feels that he’s giving back to his country in a significant way where he is now a doctor, and he is taking care of veterans. So we find different ways of serving, and my five boys and my husband did serve missions, and did not serve in the military…GOLDBERG: So when you are facing these mothers whose children have not come back, how will you explain to them that your sons haven’t gone or will you talk about the missions they have gone on?ROMNEY: I would say it’s probably the hardest thing that a president and a first lady probably do, is to comfort those that have lost a loved one and have gone in harms way. I have seen my husband when he was governor of Massachusetts and I went with him–I didn’t go to every funeral–but he went to every funeral of a returning veteran, family person, and it was the hardest thing Mitt had to do.
Romney did not serve in Vietnam because he was serving his church on a two-year mission in France, and none of the five Romney sons have served in the military.
Josh Romney, one of Ann’s five sons, tagged along to the taping today. Josh got asked about his brother, Tagg, who told a local North Carolina radio station Wednesday he wanted to take a swing at President Obama during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Josh responded, “That brother has slugged me a couple of times. I’m sure President Obama has nothing to worry about…it’s hard when you’re in this process to see your dad get beat up. There is no one you care about more than your dad than to watch him get up there and debate…except for Mom.” “You really don’t like to see your dad get beat up by the media, or President Obama or whatever it is, so you take it pretty personally,” Josh added, assuring viewers that Tagg meant the statement to be “off the cuff, and I assure you he didn’t mean it.” This elicited a quick reaction from co-host Joy Behar, who quipped, “I hope so.”
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