To Republicans flabbergasted by Mitt Romney’s decision to build a massive beach house during a presidential run about the struggling middle class, fear not: your presumptive nominee understands your concerns. In fact, he understands them so well that he once used the exact same issue against the Democratic presidential nominee.
Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski unearthed a clip of Romney mocking then-presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 for being an out-of-touch rich guy with a big house — the very same charges now being thrown at his own campaign.
“There’s a senator from my state who wants to get elected president,” Romney said at the time. “I don’t know why he would want to do that because he would have to move into a smaller house.”
At this point, even casual political observers are probably acquainted with Romney’s California dream house: a La Jolla mega-mansion that’s being built on the torn-down foundation of a separate $12 million mansion Romney purchased and whose features include a 3,600-square-foot basement and a separate elevator just for cars. Democrats have been highlighting the manse at every turn as part of a broader campaign to portray Romney as — wait for it — an out-of-touch rich guy with a big house.
This isn’t the first time Romney’s past attacks on Kerry have come back to haunt him. Another 2004 clip unearthed by Kaczynski earlier in the campaign featured Romney condemning Kerry for five straight minutes as uniquely unqualified to be president because he had changed his position on so many issues.
