Rubio: Romney's Latino comment was 'joke'
(CNN) - Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was joking when he said at a Florida fundraiser last spring that he would have a better shot at winning the presidency if he were Latino, Sen. Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
On a conference call with reporters, Rubio said that the comments - recorded secretly and published earlier this week along with other clips of the same event by a left-leaning magazine - were intended to be a line of humor.
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"Well I think he meant it as a joke," Rubio said. "At least, that's how most reasonable people would take it."
In the fundraiser, Romney said, "My dad, you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company, but he was born in Mexico.
"Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this, but he was unfortunately born of Americans living in Mexico," Romney said to laughter at the fundraiser. "They'd lived there for a number of years, and I mean I say that jokingly, but it'd be helpful if they'd been Latino."
Rubio, who is Cuban American and a rising star in the GOP, and Romney acknowledged the candidate was on the list of people he was vetting to join his presidential ticket.
The Senator from Florida said Romney has made a similar reference or joke like that in the past.
Romney is to speak Thursday evening at a forum hosted by the Spanish-language television network Univision, then hold a rally in Miami, Florida.
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If this was supposed tone a joke, can someone please explain to me what makes it funny?
Of course the first generation American of Cuban descent finds these Mexican remarks funny. Might I suggest that had Romney been born to Mexican parents, his father would not have been an auto industry CEO or state governor and that he probably would been one of those "victims" he ridiculed, needing loans for college and paying no income tax due to not having daddy's fortune to fall back on.
Latinos think Rubio is a joke.
Yeah romney is the joke
The joke is Rubio. You cannot coverup what came out of Romney's mouth.
Good joke. Bye Bye Mitt
Funny how his father George was born in Mexico, ran for governor in Michigan and won, and then ran for President of the USA and lost, yet he still jokes about the "Birther issue" about President Obama, when his father ran for office having a real birther issue that went unnoticed. Talk about a hypocrite.
Jesus Is Lord.
Yeah sell out your own people for your career
36% of Hispanics/Latinos identify their race as white. Most Hispanics/Latinos don't see themselves fitting into the standard racial categories used by the US Census Bureau. Remember, Hispanic/Latino refers to an ethnicity not a race. When it comes to race, according to the Pew Hispanic survey, half (51%) of Latinos identify their race as "some other race." Meanwhile, 36% identify their race as WHITE, and 3% say their race is black.
Yeah, roll out your token hispanic to tell voters that yet another one of Mitten's dumb statements was "just a joke". Damage control is becoming an overtime job for the Romney campaign.