# Romney fakes a charity event **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 1, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509 "2012-11-01T01:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/21 "2012-11-01T05:36:26Z")
> [@vaultermn](#): > > I think you have your facts mixed up. The food was not for the Red Cross. He was soliciting cash donations for the Red Cross via the large TV screens. No, it’s you who has your facts mixed up. From the horse’s mouth: > [@The Red Cross](#): > > “The American Red Cross appreciates the support from the Romney campaign **and is working with the campaign to process this donation of supplies**. We are grateful that both the Obama and Romney campaigns have also encouraged the public to send financial donations to the Red Cross. We encourage individuals who want to help to consider making a financial donation or making an appointment to give blood.” > > [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222\_162-57543035/romney-donates-to-american-red-cross/](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-34222_162-57543035/romney-donates-to-american-red-cross/) So in the middle of this catastrophic disaster, the Red Cross has to pull people off their normal duties to **PROCESS UNWANTED SUPPLIES** from the craven Romney campaign. Shame on him. Shame, shame, shame on him. > [@valtermn](#): > > About the worst you can say, is that Romney donated $5000 to help people. How much has Obama donated out of his campaign? No, that’s not even _close_ to the worst that can be said about this opportunistic, arrogant, self-righteous jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/22 "2012-11-01T06:14:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’d like to see it reported by any news. This may well be true, but RM is an agenda driven commentator, not a legit news reporter, and I wouldn’t trust her any more than I’d trust Bill O’Reilly to not slant the story by editing out certain facts. Drilling down, it’s not clear to me what JM doubts. That said, I located [an ABC news article](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/aid-organizations-prefer-cash-to-canned-food/). It says: 1. The Red Cross prefers donations of cash and blood. 2. The Red Cross thanks Romney and will schlep his stuff over to a warehouse for processing. 3. Buzzfeed reports that Romney staffers bought $5000 of supplies at Walmart. “The campaign confirmed to BuzzFeed that it had contributed supplies to the drive, although they did not specify how much.” So the Romney campaign isn’t offering a denial at least yet. I’m not sure what John Mace’s problem is with RM’s reporting. The Romney campaign wanted photos of people handing over supplies to the candidate, to show how generous they were, though the supplies in practice were not especially helpful. At any rate let’s correct the record. Here’s what the Red Cross’ official website says about in kind contributions. I’ll add emphasis: I would like to donate clothes, cars or other items to charity. Does the American Red Cross accept donated goods? Unfortunately, due to logistical constraints the Red Cross does not accept or solicit individual donations or collections of items. Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported which **impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel**. So please. Give to the American Red Cross. But don’t pay attention to Mitt Romney: that would be wrong. The Red Cross really could do without the canned goods and blankets, especially during an emergency. I applaud those who did not bring canned goods etc. to what was essentially a hastily renamed [campaign rally](http://americablog.com/2012/10/romney-shows-campaign-video-at-hurricane-sandy-relief-event.html): that was the right thing to do. Let the Romney campaign buy its stage props at Walmart. [Frequently Asked Questions | American Red Cross](http://www.redcross.org/help-faq) ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/23 "2012-11-01T07:31:03Z")
Link to the original source of the information about the $5k purchase and the repurposing of the Victory Rally. > **[The Making Of Romney's Storm Relief Event](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mckaycoppins/the-making-of-romneys-storm-relief-event)** > > A scramble to depoliticize a political campaign, and $5,000 in supplies from Wal-Mart. "Just grab something." ETA: I imagine that Red Cross posted the public thank you to the Romney campaign to get the reporters off their phone lines. As stated in their thank you note, they prefer cash and blood. If you have canned goods that you want to donate, consider your local food banks or the food bank in Youngstown where Ryan helped out. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/24 "2012-11-01T08:40:41Z")
> [@getitrite](#): > > My question would be why isn’t he getting his church, with their warehouse of supplies to allow him to pack a truck for the East coast, don’t the mormons live there too. Maybe because that church doesn’t need to have a candidate who is not in a leadership position in the church tell them to [do what they’re already doing](http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/hurricane-sandy-cleanup)? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/25 "2012-11-01T09:46:43Z")
> [@vaultermn](#): > > About the worst you can say, is that Romney donated $5000 to help people. How much has Obama donated out of his campaign? I think it’s good that he donated $5,000, but that is undermined by how he did it. If he’d simply taken five thousand dollars out of his campaign funds and given it straight to the Red Cross, excusing it after the fact by jokingly saying, “The money was donated to my campaign to get me elected. Helping here is good PR, so it counts, right?” I’d have more respect for him. Hell, how much in the way of campaign funds does he have left? Just give half of it straight to charity and I’m sure he’d see a corresponding boost in his polling numbers. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/26 "2012-11-01T10:43:10Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I’d believe anything bad about Romney. I appreciate your honesty, if only the other 95% of the board was as candid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/27 "2012-11-01T11:03:33Z")
I agree. It would also be nice if some people admitted that they refuse to believe it, or (more likely) totally believe it and are prepared to refute or defend it by any means necessary anyway. > [@vaultermn](#): > > About the worst you can say, is that Romney donated $5000 to help people. How much has Obama donated out of his campaign? You realize there was no cash prize associated with bengamo’s challenge, right? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/28 "2012-11-01T11:27:06Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Drilling down, it’s not clear to me what JM doubts. That said, I located [an ABC news article](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/aid-organizations-prefer-cash-to-canned-food/). It says: > > 1. The Red Cross prefers donations of cash and blood. > > 2. The Red Cross thanks Romney and will schlep his stuff over to a warehouse for processing. > > 3. Buzzfeed reports that Romney staffers bought $5000 of supplies at Walmart. “The campaign confirmed to BuzzFeed that it had contributed supplies to the drive, although they did not specify how much.” So the Romney campaign isn’t offering a denial at least yet. > I’m not sure what John Mace’s problem is with RM’s reporting. The Romney campaign wanted photos of people handing over supplies to the candidate, to show how generous they were, though the supplies in practice were not especially helpful. > At any rate let’s correct the record. Here’s what the Red Cross’ official website says about in kind contributions. I’ll add emphasis: > I would like to donate clothes, cars or other items to charity. Does the American Red Cross accept donated goods? > > Unfortunately, due to logistical constraints the Red Cross does not accept or solicit individual donations or collections of items. Items such as collected food, used clothing and shoes must be sorted, cleaned, repackaged and transported which **impedes the valuable resources of money, time, and personnel**. So please. Give to the American Red Cross. But don’t pay attention to Mitt Romney: that would be wrong. The Red Cross really could do without the canned goods and blankets, especially during an emergency. I applaud those who did not bring canned goods etc. to what was essentially a hastily renamed [campaign rally](http://americablog.com/2012/10/romney-shows-campaign-video-at-hurricane-sandy-relief-event.html): that was the right thing to do. Let the Romney campaign buy its stage props at Walmart. [Frequently Asked Questions | American Red Cross](http://www.redcross.org/help-faq) Just to be clear, the OP did not link to the RM piece or quote from it, and I’m not going to his homework for him. All we have is his summary. But I would treat RM as I would any Op Ed piece-- a good start, but I’d need to see the source material. She is not on the air to present the news-- she is on the air to push a political agenda (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). As for cash donations, the article you linked to included: > [@](#): > > The campaign confirmed that their goods are on their way to a warehouse in New Jersey where they will be processed. And the campaign added that they have solicited financial donations from their supporters on Twitter and Facebook and at a rally in Florida today, Romney encouraged supporters to donate to the Red Cross. > Romney also made a personal financial donation to the Red Cross as well, the campaign said on Wednesday. They did not specify the amount. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/29 "2012-11-01T11:33:53Z")
This is the kind of thing you’d expect from the boy in the balloon. Mitt likens the Sandy cleanup to his experience picking up trash following a high school football game. Rather than asking the Red Cross what he should do, he takes it upon himself to do something the Red Cross specifically doesn’t want you to do. Money and blood help- material goods slow things down. Regarding Rachel Maddow’s reporting- certainly she’s opinionated and certainly she delights in pointing out Romney’s shortcomings. But she isn’t allowed to make stuff up- the NBC editors do not permit this. She doesn’t work for Fox, she works for a legitimate news operation. Comparing her to Bill O’Reilly is nonsensical. So the Romney campaign spent $5,000 on supplies that the Red Cross doesn’t want. Color me unimpressed. Does the Obama campaign contribute? I have no idea- what’s important is that Obama is doing his job and doing it exceedingly well, according to the Republican governor of the most distressed state. The wheels are coming off the Romney campaign. Stupid stunts like this are acts of desperation. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/30 "2012-11-01T12:00:24Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > What are the odds that this will be reported on Fox news? > > Or if it is reported, how much do you want to bet it will be reported as > “Obama criticises Romney for trying to help” (or something similar) It’s being reported on [Fox News via them reporting on reporters reporting “biases”.](http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/31/romney-slammed-by-msnbc-mitchell-for-collecting-storm-supplies/) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/31 "2012-11-01T13:49:07Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Just to be clear, the OP did not link to the RM piece or quote from it, and I’m not going to his homework for him. All we have is his summary. But I would treat RM as I would any Op Ed piece-- a good start, but I’d need to see the source material. She is not on the air to present the news-- she is on the air to push a political agenda (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). > > As for cash donations, the article you linked to included: Maddow was quoting from a [Buzzfeed article](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-making-of-romneys-storm-relief-event), a site I was not familiar with. Looking at it, they seem to report on stupidity from both sides of the political aisle, so it’s difficult to tell what their politics are. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/32 "2012-11-01T14:02:41Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Maddow was quoting from a [Buzzfeed article](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-making-of-romneys-storm-relief-event), a site I was not familiar with. Looking at it, they seem to report on stupidity from both sides of the political aisle, so it’s difficult to tell what their politics are. As reported there, I can’t work up a lot of outrage. They tried to convert a campaign rally to a relief rally at the last minute, and got a few things wrong. I don’t think this amounts to a “fake charity event”, and that article doesn’t support calling it that. I think this quote summarized things nicely: > [@](#): > > …tested the [Romney] campaign’s agility and left a few threads of partisanship inadvertently hanging. If RM called it “fake”, then I think she’s wrong. If she didn’t call it that, then you did her a disservice with your thread title. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/33 "2012-11-01T14:13:13Z")
Mitt didn’t want to be shownup by Ryan washing clean pots. He had to be shown doing something besides changing his mind. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/34 "2012-11-01T15:00:36Z")
Whether or not this can be fairly described as a “fake” charity event is beside the point. The fact of the matter is that the Romney campaign’s response is completely tone-deaf if they think this was an adequate way to react to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. If Romney wanted to help, he could have (1) publically requested that his wealthier donors allow their contributions to go to disaster relief, or (2) written a check himself out of his vast pile of wealth. Everyone knows he’s rich and he has rich friends; the fact that he staged a ham-fisted soup-can drive in a swing state just confirms he’s also an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/35 "2012-11-01T15:20:27Z")
What’s not fake about it? When you go out to buy props, and set them out so that people can grab them to hand over to Romney, that pretty much does it for me. ETA: Like CJJ\* said. Isn’t Romney’s big achievement supposed to be saving the Winter Olympics by marshalling the forces of the corporate elite? A UHaul with stuff you bought at walmart in Ohio seems a little paltry. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/36 "2012-11-01T15:30:05Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > What’s not fake about it? When you go out to buy props, and set them out so that people can grab them to hand over to Romney, that pretty much does it for me. > > ETA: Like CJJ\* said. Isn’t Romney’s big achievement supposed to be saving the Winter Olympics by marshalling the forces of the corporate elite? A UHaul with stuff you bought at walmart in Ohio seems a little paltry. Why should he? All those people on the East Coast most likely won’t be paying income tax next year due to deductions for storm losses. Makes them part of the [del]47[/del] 48% he despises. He just needed to be seen doing something. He just hasn’t quite grasped this Internet thing that keep spreading the truth. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/37 "2012-11-01T15:39:38Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > If Romney wanted to help, he could have (1) publically requested that his wealthier donors allow their contributions to go to disaster relief, or (2) written a check himself out of his vast pile of wealth. If you read the linked article, you’d see that he did both of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/38 "2012-11-01T15:53:12Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > Whether or not this can be fairly described as a “fake” charity event is beside the point. The fact of the matter is that the Romney campaign’s response is completely tone-deaf if they think this was an adequate way to react to the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. If Romney wanted to help, he could have (1) publically requested that his wealthier donors allow their contributions to go to disaster relief, or (2) written a check himself out of his vast pile of wealth. Everyone knows he’s rich and he has rich friends; the fact that he staged a ham-fisted soup-can drive in a swing state just confirms he’s also an asshole. Right. He was originally schedule to have a political rally on that day. There’s nothing wrong with that. Then they changed it from a political rally to a “storm relief” event, and that seems reasonable. But even though it was supposedly no longer a political rally, all the same speakers that were scheduled for the political rally still spoke, including McCain, who said > [@](#): > > “This president is either engaged in a massive cover-up deceiving the American people or he is so grossly incompetent that he is not qualified to be the commander in chief of our armed forces. It’s either one of them.” Also, Romney’s bio video played at the event, which someone tried to blame on a volunteer pushing play. It probably would have been better for him to just go ahead with the regular political rally like was scheduled, and maybe say a few words at some point about how our thoughts and prayers are with those in the north east. It’s the fake posturing about charity that doesn’t really help a whole lot and pretending that it’s not a political rally that’s what bothers people. > [@Chefguy](#): > > Speaking of fake charity, why isn’t Trump offering his $5M to this effort instead of bloviating about college transcripts? I’ve seen some people using the hashtag #ThanksDonald to troll Trump about that. Obviously it won’t shame Trump into donating any money, since he doesn’t have shame, but it’s still funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/39 "2012-11-01T16:39:08Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > As reported there, I can’t work up a lot of outrage. They tried to convert a campaign rally to a relief rally at the last minute, and got a few things wrong. I don’t think this amounts to a “fake charity event”, and that article doesn’t support calling it that. I think this quote summarized things nicely: > > If RM called it “fake”, then I think she’s wrong. If she didn’t call it that, then you did her a disservice with your thread title. Maddow is often over the top in her opinion pieces, IMO, and I don’t watch her show very often. Whether or not she actually used the word “fake” is irrelevant, and I have no recollection of it, but the tone of her piece was most definitely in that vein. The Romney campaign had stated that they would not hold a campaign event, so in order not to renege on that statement, they scrambled to turn it into a faux charity event, which was a not-so-thinly disguised campaign event. The man is sadly desperate to be called “president” in his lifetime, and the campaign has been given license to suspend any notions of shame or dishonor to get him there. So far in this election year, Romney has campaigned over the corpses of diplomats and citizens, and the misery of the survivors. He has no shame, and neither do those who support these actions. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509/40 "2012-11-02T01:21:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Just to be clear, the OP did not link to the RM piece or quote from it, and I’m not going to his homework for him. All we have is his summary. Fair enough. I’m not berating Chefguy, but it’s true that this is hearsay. > [@](#): > > But I would treat RM as I would any Op Ed piece-- a good start, but I’d need to see the source material. A better analogue would be to a columnist. A typical OpEd writer only gets published occasionally. In contrast, the factual accuracy and fairness of a columnist can be evaluated because they have a track record. I’d consider this story to show a substantive mis-step of the Romney campaign from the point of view of the country (because it misleads the public about the advisability of giving blankets and the like) but not from the POV of Romney’s electability as this isn’t significant enough for the mainstream media to pounce on. Once upon a time, Republican politicians would have played this differently: they would have convincingly held a rally for the storm victims, told their speakers to cool it and speak in platitudes and emphasize that they were NOT repeat NOT going to politicize all this. Which would look decent and in fact be good politics. Chris Christie operates in this old school tradition. Mitt Romney does not: his attitude is basically: “Who cares? Nobody reads fact checkers and the base doesn’t grok to our obstructionism anyway.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-fakes-a-charity-event/639509.md?page=3)