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A high school classmate of presidential candidate Mitt Romney told ABC News today that he considers a particular prank the two pulled at Michigan’s Cranbrook School to be “assault and battery” and that he witnessed Romney hold the scissors to cut the hair of a student who was being physically pinned to the ground by several others.
“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,” said Phillip Maxwell, who is now an attorney and still considers Romney an old friend.
“I saw it with my own eyes,” said Maxwell, of the anecdote first reported by the Washington Post. Maxwell said Romney held the scissors helping to cut the hair of a student, John Lauber, who was presumed to be gay and who had long hair. “It was a hack job… clumps of hair taken off.”
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. Romney has since apologized for what he said were “pranks” in high school but has said he doesn’t remember this specific event. He added that “homosexuality was the furthest thing from his mind” when it came to the jokes he played on classmates. He laughed off the 45-year-old anecdotes during the radio interview today.
Asked if he has any doubt that what Romney did could be considered bullying, Maxwell responded, “Oh my god, are you kidding?… I castigated myself regularly for not having intervened. I would have felt a lot better about myself had I said hey, enough.”
“When I saw the look on his (Lauber’s) face, it was a look I’ll never forget,” said Maxwell. “When you see a victim, the sense of trust betrayed in this boy who was perfectly innocent for being different.”
“This was bullying supreme,” he said.
Maxwell told ABC News that he is a registered independent, generally votes for Democrats, but has voted Republican in the past. He said he would have voted for Romney’s father, George Romney, had he won the presidential nomination. He says he has not donated to President Obama, nor has he volunteered for him.
Maxwell said he believes the incident had to have some effect on Romney.
“I grew up with him. We were best friends in elementary school. We always remained friends. Mitt is wonderful, very bright, an enormously energetic human being… a friend all my life, but this was a side of him that I hadn’t seen,” said Maxwell.
Maxwell added that he believes this is relevant in a Presidential campaign because it speaks to the “character” of Romney.
In response to the Post story, the Romney campaign today released statements of two other students who attended Cranbrook with Romney.
“Mitt was a thoughtful guy with a great sense of humor who cared about his classmates. He had a good perspective on how to balance all the pressures high school students face. He would never go out and do anything mean spirited. Clownish, yes. Never mean,” said Richard Moon, a classmate of Romney’s.
“Mitt never had a malicious bone in his body – trying to imply or characterize him as a bully is absurd.” said John French, another Cranbrook classmate.
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And liberals are like dogs . They bark till everyone is annoyed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney apologized Thursday for "stupid" high school pranks that may have gone too far and moved quickly to stamp out any notion that he bullied schoolmates because they were gay. His swift response reflected the Republican presidential candidate's recognition that his record on gay rights is under heightened scrutiny following President Barack Obama's embrace of gay marriage
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And liberals are like dogs . They bark till everyone is annoyed.
Do you have to point out every inch of whatever this is? I'm getting tired of it. I'm sure that most of us browse the news at least once a day. We make of it what we will. I personally don't appreciate your trolling.
I put you on my "ignore list" but you constantly remain in view when I choose to read "new posts".
I don't care what you think. This is a car site. Get off my screen.
I'm new to this forum, but is it really this juvie?....flame on me if ya want, but really
Unfortunately yes..I have been on this site for years..had to listen to liberal whinnnners cry about GWB and the same assclowns defend ojackass unlike anything I have ever seen before...have to listen closely though..it's kinda hard for them to talk with obozos nuts in their mouths..
Cult of personality.... if we weren't so enamored with what someone looks like, who they know, how they talk, or if they're the first XXX to do something then we'd probably be on the right track.... well, that and a belief that the government just creates problems.
Do you have to point out every inch of whatever this is? I'm getting tired of it. I'm sure that most of us browse the news at least once a day. We make of it what we will. I personally don't appreciate your trolling.
I put you on my "ignore list" but you constantly remain in view when I choose to read "new posts".
I don't care what you think. This is a car site. Get off my screen.
This is a car site Ive been on for 9 years . Who the fck are you ? Go away and stick to the mods for newbs section.
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And liberals are like dogs . They bark till everyone is annoyed.
All's fair in love, war, & politics... right Booger?
But you guys are right... this shouldn't be a hot topic issue when our economy is still so sluggish...
So why the f**k does the supposedly "conservative" party keep trying to push through legislation and divisive narrative (us vs. them) on social issues?!?!?
__________________ Stacy King (I'm a guy dammit!!) - Owner - Asphalt Ventures
All's fair in love, war, & politics... right Booger?
But you guys are right... this shouldn't be a hot topic issue when our economy is still so sluggish...
So why the f**k does the supposedly "conservative" party keep trying to push through legislation and divisive narrative (us vs. them) on social issues?!?!?
kettle black, Stack. Almost all Politicians are whoremongers right now. There are few that say what needs to be said and don't play the game. Still a big fan of Allen West b/c of his candor.
kettle black, Stack. Almost all Politicians are whoremongers right now. There are few that say what needs to be said and don't play the game. Still a big fan of Allen West b/c of his candor.
I know, I know...
Wait... isn't Allen West the guy that claimed 80% of congressional democrats were card-carrying communists?
Sorry... 80 members
__________________ Stacy King (I'm a guy dammit!!) - Owner - Asphalt Ventures
Mitt Romney Was a Bully
