Vox journo totally whitewashes Dems and MSM's collusion against Mitt Romney in 2012 (and suggests that John Kerry was 'nice'?)

The Daily Beast’s Matt Lewis recently took a look at the current state of the Republican Party as “the party of jerks”:

When did the GOP become the party of jerks? https://t.co/7UiMHu1W43

— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) August 27, 2022

When did Republican candidates start hitting below the belt? What, exactly, was the trigger for that sharp transformation? What led Republicans to start being proactive and throwing punches first instead of waiting for Democrats to take the first swing?

In case you missed it, Donald Trump didn’t just explode onto the political scene out of nowhere; the conditions had to be just right. And lucky for him, they were perfect. And, as Bethany Mandel points out, that’s thanks in no small part to what Republicans saw the Democratic Party do to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney:

If I had to pinpoint a moment, when Mitt Romney spent his entire campaign being accused of killing Big Bird, building binders full of women, torturing the family dog, etc etc. https://t.co/XuXovM0gEF

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) August 28, 2022

Republicans started to prefer candidates that hit back. pic.twitter.com/we7WFyJI1l

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) August 28, 2022

Understandably so. At least we thought it was understandable. For some reason, Vox health care reporter Dylan Scott seems to be having some difficulty understanding it:

the way Rs have memory holed Swift Boat (just for starters) and pretend Mitt Romney was the first “nice” candidate to face criticism AS A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is genuinely amazing https://t.co/TeLcMobZKv

— Dylan Scott (@dylanlscott) August 28, 2022

One difference is that the Bush campaign at least publicly kept Swift Boat at arms length and fired staff who were found to have worked on it, and some of the worst Romney smears came directly from the mouths of the President, VP, and Majority Leader https://t.co/1LmxFEP8bR

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 29, 2022

Mitt Romney never would have stooped to accusing the Obama administration of something like wanting to put black Americans “back in chains” or killing old ladies out of financial greed. But it was Romney who was continuously vilified by the Left — and by the mainstream media.

And also the mainstream media treated Swift Boat with contempt and made it a pejorative, and were more or less willing participants on the Romney stuff

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 29, 2022

You've ironically made my point, because "Detroit should go bankrupt" are not words that ever left Romney's mouth https://t.co/l0vmvDW8BZ

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 29, 2022

PolitiFact wasn’t swooping in to fact-check all the lies that powerful Democratic politicians were spreading about Romney. Glenn Kessler wasn’t in any hurry to put Mitt Romney’s remarks in proper and fair context. Democrats dragged Mitt Romney through the mud, and the MSM were only too happy to help them do it.

That kind of misses the point.

It wasn't the fact that there was mudslinging, lies, etc (there always is that of course). Politicians are awful after all.

The problem was the media allowed those lies to go with little or no pushback.

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) August 29, 2022

When Harry Reid went on to the floor of the Senate and lied about Romney's taxes, how many reporters went to Reid and called him a liar? And then there was the CNN debate where the moderator literally attacked Romney… For staying a fact.

That's the difference.

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) August 29, 2022

Nailed it.

Yep. The media was all over the Swift Boat thing, working overtime to dispel it.

Accuse Romney of killing a woman with cancer and we get “Ad ties Romney to woman’s death from cancer”. https://t.co/2P5dPXmHS8

— Fuzzy Chimp 🇺🇸 (@fuzzychimpcom) August 29, 2022

Exactly.

I must’ve missed that part when the press circled the wagons around Romney like they did for Kerry. https://t.co/YEPjQtxxtJ pic.twitter.com/RQhHQkKJKs

— The H2 (@TheH2) August 29, 2022

You went after him for putting his dog in a car carrier, in defense of a man who literally ate dogs. https://t.co/oeqOm0BCEV

— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) August 29, 2022

I have little to say about the Swift Boat incident, but the press was not just "mean" to Romney, they attacked his wife, his kids, they said he gave a woman cancer, our current president said he would put black people in chains https://t.co/4b4B6V50JA

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 29, 2022

They attacked Ann Romney's wardrobe, attacked her for the horses she used for her MS therapy, attack her husband for the car elevator they used so she could more easily exit the vehicle when she was sick

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 29, 2022

And, lest we forget, the election with "Swiftboating" was the same election in which the biggest news program in the country aired fake documents and a proven liar in their attempt to attack W's military record

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) August 29, 2022

Now, we could sit here and debate whether or not Romney should’ve gone down into the gutter to fight back against the Left’s smears, but 2012 is in the past now, and anyway, is there any doubt that if Romney had been willing to fight dirty, the media would’ve worked even harder to destroy him and white-knight for the Obama administration?

***

Help us keep owning the libs! Join Twitchy VIP and use promo code AMERICAFIRST to receive a 25% discount off your membership!