Mitt Romney’s wife Ann, it seems, disagrees with her husband’s campaign staff when it comes to that $10,000 bet Romney made with Rick Perry on a debate stage over the weekend.
Romney’s staff told TPM Saturday that the bet — which has emerged as one of Romney’s major gaffes on the campaign trail so far — was “a good moment for Mitt.”
Reeling from incoming attacks coming from all sides, Romney told Fox News this morning his wife’s take was a bit different.
“Let me tell you, afterwards, my wife came up and she said ‘Mitt, it was a great debate. You’re great at a the lot of things. Just not betting.’ So we’re over with that,” Romney said.
Romney explained that the goal of the bet was to “put out an outrageous number for an outrageous charge” from Perry. The Texas governor was — yet again — attacking Romney over an alteration Romney made to his book, No Apology, between the hardcover and paperback editions. (More detail on the specifics of what Perry’s talking about here.)
There’s a real debate over whether or not Romney bested Perry on the merits of the exchange — Romney did in fact tweak the language in his book about the health care mandate he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts, but the factchecking industry has mostly given him a pass on it.
But what may have been a good answer for Romney was lost when he held out his hand to wager Perry. Romney was asked on Fox if he regretted saying the bet line.
He declined to answer.
“I put out an outrageous number for an outrageous charge,” Romney said, blaming the negative headlines on an Obama team trying “to do anything to deflect from his record.”
