Good Morning America reported Romney's “passion to hunt down” bin Laden, but not his previous lack thereof

Written by Kathleen Henehan

Published

While reporting on Sen. John McCain's and former Gov. Mitt Romney's expressions of their “passion to hunt down Osama bin Laden” during the May 3 Republican presidential debate, ABC's John Berman aired a clip of Romney saying, “It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.” But Berman did not report the impetus for the question that prompted Romney's comment: On April 26, Romney reportedly said in reference to bin Laden, “It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”


On the May 4 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, ABC News correspondent John Berman reported on the May 3 Republican presidential debate and stated, “Two of the GOP front-runners, Sen. John McCain [R-AZ] and former Governor Mitt Romney [R-MA] tried to one-up each other with their passion to hunt down Osama bin Laden.” Berman then aired a clip of Romney saying, “It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.” But Berman did not report the impetus for the question that prompted Romney's comment: On April 26, according to the Associated Press, Romney said in reference to bin Laden, “It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” In fact, the Romney comment that ABC aired occurred just after John Harris, editor-in-chief of The Politico, asked former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore about Romney's bin Laden comment quoted by the AP, noting, “Senator McCain called that naive." MSNBC host Chris Matthews then invited Romney to “respond to the mentioned reference to you.”

From the May 3 Republican presidential debate:

HARRIS: Governor Gilmore of Virginia, when speaking about Osama bin Laden last week, Governor Romney said, quote, “It's not worth moving heaven and Earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.” Senator McCain called that naive. Who's right?

[...]

MATTHEWS: Governor Romney, respond to the mentioned reference to you --

ROMNEY: Well, of course, we get --

[laughter]

MATTHEWS: -- by Senator McCain.

[laughter]

ROMNEY: Thank you. Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America.

MATTHEWS: Do we move heaven and earth to do it?

ROMNEY: We'll move everything to get him. But I don't want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person -- Osama bin Laden -- because after we get him, there's going to be another and another. This is about Shia and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate. They ultimately want to bring down the United States of America. This is a global effort we're going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.

From the May 4 edition of ABC's Good Morning America:

BERMAN: Foreign-policy strength was a major theme. Two of the GOP front-runners, Sen. John McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney, tried to one-up each other with their passion to hunt down Osama bin Laden.

ROMNEY: It's more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.

McCAIN: We will track him down, we will capture -- we will bring him to justice, and I'll follow him to the gates of hell.