Romney Didn't 'Literally' See Dad March with King

Do Mitt Romney and his team do all the necessary fact checking before he says something on the campaign trail? Or do they think that other people won't fact check statements by a major presidential candidate? For instance, his remark that he remembers seeing his dad, former Michigan Governor George Romney, marching with civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Jr. in the 60s in Michigan.

Romney originally said it in his recent major speech on religion in America. Then he repeated the remark during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press: "You can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at our lives. My dad marched with Martin Luther King. My mom was a tireless crusader for civil rights."

Unfortunately, it looks like it never happened. Certainly not Mitt Romney seeing it, and maybe not the march at all. Now Romney campaign officials are saying that he only meant the remark figuratively, not literally, when he said he saw his father and King march together.

The Romney campaign offered a 1967 book written by Stephen Hess and Washington Post political columnist David Broder, as confirmation that George Romney marched with King in Grosse Pointe in 1963.

But the Boston alternative paper, the Boston Phoenix, said it could find no evidence of Romney marching with King. And the Detroit Free Press said its archives showed no record of King marching in Grosse Pointe in 1963 or of then-Gov. Romney taking part in a King's march in another part of Detroit in June of that year. Romney did march in Grosse Point a few days after the June march, but King was not there according to eye-witnesses.

The elder Romney, however, was well-known for his support of civil rights. The Romney campaign said it was going to further research his papers for evidence of his contact with King.

Update: The Boston Phoenix is now reporting that the Romney campaign is saying that George W. Romney and Martin Luther King Jr. marched together in June, 1963 -— although possibly not on the same day or in the same city.

"Romney, according to one piece of written source material provided by the campaign, made a 'surprise' appearance at a small march in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in late June — several days after King led a much larger march in Detroit. Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom suggests that these two were part of the same 'series' of events, co-sponsored by King and the NAACP, and is thus consistent with [Mitt] Romney's claim that 'I saw my father march with Martin Luther King.' "

The campaign also provided a quote from a book that said the elder Romney "was among the prominent whites marching with Reverend King" in the [Detroit Freedom March on June 23, 1963] (which the book erroneously says took place on July 23)." But as the Phoenix notes, contemporaneous and historical accounts say Romney didn't take part in this march because it was on a Sunday and that Romney did not make public appearances on the Sabbath.

2:25 PM ET | 12-20-2007 | permalink