NPR: Who Was Whispering During GOP Debate?

Who Was Whispering During GOP Debate?

As a famous commercial once advised, if you want to capture someone's attention, whisper.

At one point during last night NBC's debate in Boca Raton, Florida, NBC moderator Tim Russert noted that Mitt Romney was a fan of Ronald Reagan. Russert asked "Will you do for social security what Reagan did in 1983?"

Then you hear it. A voice off-camera whispers "He raised taxes." It's not clear if Romney heard the voice, but he immediately says, "I'm not going to raise taxes." The exchange has been making the rounds on YouTube today.

Raw Story says that MSNBC is blaming the whisper on a mike malfunction.

"We had some audio issues and Gov. Romney's mike wasn't working momentarily. Simple as that," MSNBC VP for Communications Jeremy Gaines said in a one-line e-mail response to questions about overheard whisper.

But Gaines didn't explain where the whisper came from, or who made it. Even more mysterious a piece about the whisper at the MSNBC site has apparently been removed.

Others have suggested that it was someone off-camera whispering to Russert to finish the question "that without the raising taxes component made no sense at all."

Romney's campaign has so far not respond to requests for comment.

2:47 PM ET | 01-25-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

# 1 the whisper is still on the debate video on msnbc website.
# 2 Romney had very little time to react, so I say he didnt hear the whisper.
# 3 Tim Russert interrupted romney after the latter said ( I wont raise taxes)then tim said, RR raised the pay roll taxe, he raised retiremnet age & he saved social security), he said that because he realized that his question was defficient, so this whisper "raise tax" may very well came from somebody close to russert alerting him that he didnt mention it.

Sent by resimc | 4:12 PM ET | 01-25-2008

They weren't whispering.

That was the Democrats shouting from South Carolina trying to be heard in Florida.

They were shouting, "Don't think we're really afraid of you and that's why we didn't come to Florida!"

Somewhere over Georgia the shouting got diluted and drowned out before it reached Florida.

By the way, have you heard: If Putin threatens to sends missiles toward America, President Hillary is going to boycott any talks with Russia.

fred camorra call

Sent by fred camorra call | 10:23 AM ET | 01-26-2008

There's more to the whisper than "he raised taxes"; raise the volume on the youtube clip, and you can hear the whispering continue even as Romney begins speaking. Now, compare the youtube clip to the one currently on msnbc.com -- the one they've included with the article "explaining" the incident. The whisper stops abruptly. I think two interesting questions are (1) what did the rest of the whisper say, and (2) why was it removed from the msnbc.com clip?

Sent by ELN | 3:59 PM ET | 01-26-2008

Mitt Romney can not be trusted. He will say anything and pay anything to win. Just look at the debate, Romney cheated. Do you want someone dishonest and deceptive as our president? Don't believe me? Look at these 2 other videos. Romney has someone telling him what to say. There is no denying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wfWDOxZkEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK408oqEyOU

Sent by Dan | 12:03 AM ET | 01-27-2008

I like the Tim Russert theory. The idea that Mitt was both listening and talking at the same time just doesn't make sense -- especially in a debate.

Sent by Lance | 12:35 PM ET | 01-27-2008

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