In Further Remarks, Romney Classmate Calls Anti-Gay Scissors Attack an Unforgettable 'Haunting Memory': VIDEO
One of Mitt Romney's classmates who was mentioned in the Washington Post story yesterday about the bullying scissors attack on a classmate thought to be gay, has come forward to ABC News with a more personal account of what happened.
Said Phillip Maxwell to David Muir:
“It’s a haunting memory. I think it was for everybody that spoke up about it … because when you see somebody who is simply different taken down that way and is terrified and you see that look in their eye you never forget it. And that was what we all walked away with. I saw it with my own eyes...It was a hack job … clumps of hair taken off."
ABC News adds:
Maxwell said he held the boy’s arm and leg, describing he and his friends as a “pack of dogs.”
Asked if Lauber was targeted because he was gay, as reported by the Post, Maxwell said, “We didn’t know that word in those days … but there were other words that were used. We weren’t ignorant, we just didn’t use the current names for things.”
Watch David Muir's report, AFTER THE JUMP...
Under no circumstances can this guy be allowed to be President. He is a sick, twisted sociopath.
This incident illuminates his character more than any of the many articles I have read about him.
GOProud should be GOPanicked over him.
Posted by: Mawm | May 11, 2012 8:48:00 AM
Maybe he can run for gay-basher-in-chief instead of president. I'm sure one of the current leaders of the anti-gay brigade is looking for a successor.
Seriously, this news will certainly shore up his credentials with hardcore conservatives about how mean-spirited this creep really is, but it may make independents squeamish and plant enough of a seed of doubt to give them pause come November.
Posted by: James C | May 11, 2012 8:54:24 AM
Please, GOProud are probably boned up right now fantasising that a Konservative hero of theirs might actually tie them up and humiliate them... Joking aside, if they say nothing about this, or try to gloss it over, they deserve all the humiliation (not in a bondage kinda way either) that they get!
Posted by: CKNJ | May 11, 2012 8:54:28 AM
Watch--the right wing will spin this as an attack on a liberal hippie who deserved what he got. Remember that. We all deserve what the bullies do to us. The continuing spectacle of salt in the wound.
Posted by: candideinncc | May 11, 2012 8:57:56 AM
As if the 323,000 who recently joined the unemployment roles last week are going to give a flying sh!t about possible high school behavior in high school 50 years ago. "Oh he didn't SAY fruit, but he meant it!"
It's the economy, stupid. But if this is all you got, it's all you got.
Posted by: MarkUs | May 11, 2012 8:58:34 AM
MAWM
Is that really the worse you guys have heard? Really? We've heard much worse here in the UK, particularly the weird Mormon stuff he got up to.
But is this really shocking? Don't the GOP bully on a consistent level EVERY single day?
In other news privileged white good-looking guy from an entailed religious family groomed to be the next messiah in his cult is a bully! Shocking!
Posted by: Rowan | May 11, 2012 9:00:01 AM
Mitt doesn't have a hang-up about viewing a minority as second-class citizens, because he's been doing it his whole life.
It aggravates the hell out of me hearing liberals, ESPECIALLY gays, criticizing Obama's timing and acting like he's the enemy. Even if he hadn't already done much for the LGBT community (which he has), the bottom line is that electing Mitt Romney would set back our pursuit for civil equality by decades.
All these idiots think they're being astute and clever, attacking Obama on these and other forums (attacking him for SUPPORTING our causes, no less) are only spreading discord and confusion. We cannot afford divisiveness this year.
Posted by: sparks | May 11, 2012 9:08:56 AM
ROWAN, I live in NC, where they just voted a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. I am surrounded by religious bullies, and interact with them on a daily basis. I also lived for two years in a town of 2000 people in Duchesne, Utah when I was 12-13 where probably 1999 of the population were Mormon, so I know a lot about both Baptist and Mormon bullies. What stands out to me in this story is not just that he lead the attack, but it's the detail of him cutting off the boy's hair. He really enjoyed what he was doing. There is the added level of psycho-sexual sadism present that sets him apart from the vast multitude of ignorant religious bigots that I have dealt with.
I wasn't going to vote for him to begin with, but now I feel like if he were voted in, we would have a version of American Psycho in the oval office that even Bush can't compare with.
Posted by: Mawm | May 11, 2012 9:15:39 AM
As the 323,000 who joined the unemployment line will understand that this streak of bullying carried on into his job at Bain where he continued to destroy peoples lives. This time by destroying jobs and sending them overseas for his own personal profit.
Posted by: Joey | May 11, 2012 9:15:41 AM
Markus,
I was watching Morning Joe today, which alone was a big mistake that I won't be making again. The Republicans on that show made the same kind of point: "gay marriage is just a silly distraction and we agree with Romney that it's more important to talk about jobs and the economy". Well, you know, Obama has been concerned about the economy...but the Republican Congress, in contrast to their 2010 campaign promises of "jobs, jobs, jobs" have, instead concentrating to abolishing Planned Parenthood, vicious anti-abortion laws, and repealing Medicare and Medicaid and pushing through even more lavish tax cuts for Mitt Romney and his 1% friends. The Republicans running Congress right now hasn't done a damned thing to create more jobs in this country, because all they give a damn about is making sure Obama is a one term President. So let's please dispense with this nonsense about the Republicans are tirelessly focused on jobs and the economy stuff.
Posted by: Terry | May 11, 2012 9:16:59 AM
Is this really surprising to anyone? Bullying is SOP for Republicans.
Posted by: Matt | May 11, 2012 9:18:25 AM
Thanks Joey. You are right. This dove tails perfectly with his job destroying career at Bain. We must connect the dots for sure.
And Markus, it isn't all we got, but character stories like this can go a long way to defining a candidate, so I wouldn't start whistling past that graveyard.
Posted by: Mawm | May 11, 2012 9:22:24 AM
Regardless of my political persuasion - Mitt Romney now has a huge, huge image problem. The GOP certainly has a mess on their hands.
I do find it more than just coincidental that Obama's announcement comes just shortly before this headliner.
Mudslinging at its finest = American Politics
Posted by: Mark | May 11, 2012 9:25:00 AM
Terry,
I'm probably older than you. I've been through elections back to JFK-Nixon. When the economy stinks on ice, the President at the reigns is always tossed. It's the "let the other guy try". That's how Carter was elected. It's how Reagan was elected, and it's how Obama and Clinton were elected. Reagan, Clinton and Bush 2 had decent or good economic situations at the time and were re-elected.
I happen to think Obama will be tossed out. We'll see won't we.
Posted by: MarkUs | May 11, 2012 9:28:07 AM
@SPARKS
You said it well,hope folks listen!
Posted by: VDUFFORD | May 11, 2012 9:45:13 AM
Markus,
Bush II was not able to run for a third term (thank God) and so Obama's election cannot be discounted as just "let the other guy try", as McCain could have been the "other guy". Also, by many indicators, the economy has improved under Obama. I know that my business and family are doing better now than in 2007 when I was laid off. In any event, I would sooner be poor and equal than a rich second-class citizen. Gay Republicans are nothing more than Uncle Toms, licking their master's boot in between kicks. I find it disgusting.
Posted by: Michael | May 11, 2012 9:52:05 AM
Anyone who expresses any support for Romscum is a traitor to our rights.
It is Romscum and his ilk who gay bashed me and others.
Are GOProud really supporting this criminal ?
Posted by: JackFknTwist | May 11, 2012 9:59:33 AM
Nothing in the ABC news report about the victim -- who WAS gay and who died a few years back.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 11, 2012 10:00:30 AM
"That's how Carter was elected."
Are you sure about that, Markus? What it economic hard times or was it Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, and Carter winning southern states that Republicans thought they had stolen from Democrats forever?
Looks like the Democrats are going to fight back this election. They've learned from the Clintons--you just don't play goody-two-shoes like Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. You go for the jugular on these right-wing lumps of crap.
And the most wonderful part is (so far) is that Romney keeps giving the Tea Party Republicans fits because he has no values--Liberal, Moderate or Conservative.
And every time they bring up Obama's Muslim roots we're going to bring up Mitt's great-grandfather with his five wives...some of whom were probably under 14 years old when Grandpa Romney married them.
Fasten your seat belts....
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | May 11, 2012 10:09:10 AM
Quite honestly, this just shows what a disconnect Romney has had his whole life. THIS, that he's forgotten while all his close friends remember it in detail, that he still doesn't think tying his dog to the roof of his car is odd, telling a young rape victim in the hospital when he was governor that she was going to hell for having an abortion, his time at Baine, firing and rehiring at a lesser wage without health insurance, his lies and absolute destruction and character assassination of his primary opponents.... This is a really weird person. No empathy, no sense of right or wrong. Maybe this is why he changes his opinions all the time or takes the prevailing sentiment. He has a disconnect. All cerebral, no emotion.
Posted by: Michaelandfred | May 11, 2012 10:14:21 AM
bully in high school + seamus on the roof of car + likes to fire people + doesn't care about the poor + joked about his dad shutting down a manufacturing plant (people lost jobs) = pattern of possible sociopath
Posted by: say what | May 11, 2012 10:44:26 AM
@Derrik in Philly:"Romney keeps giving the Tea Party Republicans fits because he has no values--Liberal, Moderate or Conservative."
Actually, I think what's infuriating the Tea Party* as well as other Republicans is that he apparently has ALL of those values, depending on which way the wind is blowing.
In his radio interview when he claims to have no memory of this incident, Romney is chuckling throughout. Hil-f*king-larious.
*pronounced "Teh-a Payr-tie" (/Pratchett)
Posted by: Acronym Jim | May 11, 2012 10:55:09 AM
The latest Rasmussen poll shows Romney at 50% vs Obama at 43%. Unless the economy improves, President Obama will not be re-elected. And the opposite is actually happening, we're entering along with the UK and EU another 'recession'. The reality is unemployment, housing will probably not significantly improve until maybe 2020. The Republicans did a shrewd thing in 2008 putting up a straw candidate [McCain] to take the fall. They realized, as did many Democrats, that whoever won the 2008 election [on the heels of the worse economic collapse since the 1930s] would not be able to improve the economy enough by the time the 2012 election rolled around, and they would be kicked out in 2012, then the Republican candidate would sweep back into the oval office, and hold onto at least the house, probably gain seats there too. Sarzozy didn't lose in France because he's conservative, he lost because he's been in power since the economic collapse and conditions haven't improved, and the French electorate got frustrated [as the American are] and kicked out the incumbent. They didn't vote for the socialist guy because they're hardcore rah-rah socialists, he was the only viable alternative for them. The same thing will happen in America [IMO] in Nov. 2012 Americans will hold their nose and vote for the viable alternative to Obama. It is what it is.
And President Obama's close association with 'gay rights' and especially marriage is not winning him many fans in especially parts of the midwest and the south. Most in the northeast and west coast don't care, but our population as a country has shifted to the south, southeast and along with that political power and influence has shifted.
Posted by: ratbastard | May 11, 2012 10:55:43 AM
That poll is ridiculous.
Obama will be re-elected.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 11, 2012 11:02:08 AM
What I find "funny" about the ABC clip, is that his defender admits that he wasn't actually there at the assault, but surmises just the same what it must've been like. What would he have felt, if his son, or his grandson were held down by four or five attackers with scissors in hand, and assaulted?
Posted by: Reggie777 | May 11, 2012 11:03:38 AM