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NAACP Slams Romney Speech: ‘Patronizing’ And ‘Just Throwing Out Buzzwords’

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Immediately after Mitt Romney addressed the NAACP today, the NAACP addressed Romney’s speech as “just throwing out buzzwords,” “misunderstanding of the needs of many African Americans,” “misread[ing] his audience,” “patronizing,” “a serious misjudgment,” and “totally disconnected.”

READ: At NAACP Romney Promises To ‘Defend Traditional Marriage’ But Represent Gay Americans

Romney, who received overall a polite response, despite being booed for promising to repeal Obamacare, may have been in the same room as the NAACP leadership, but he seemed to be talking to another group — his mostly-white base.

“Gov. Romney’s criticism of the Affordable Care Act signals his misunderstanding of the needs of many African Americans,” Benjamin Jealous, NAACP President and CEO, said via Twitter.

Characterizing the speech as “insensitive,” Buzzfeed’s McKay Coppins reported:

“I believe his vested interests are in white Americans,” said Charlette Stoker Manning, chair of Women in NAACP. “You cannot possibly talk about jobs for black people at the level he’s coming from. He’s talking about entrepreneurship, savings accounts — black people can barely find a way to get back and forth from work.”

Pointing to what she sees as Romney’s lack of interaction with the poor African-Americans, Manning added, “It’s such a big gap in what he’s attempting to sell us.”

…

Dedrick Muhammad, the director of the NAACP Economic Department, chalked up the perceived tone-deafness to the fact that Romney spends most of his time on the campaign trail talking to white, middle-class audiences in rural and suburban areas.

“He knew to bring up great civil rights stalwarts and quote them, but he still seems to have great distance in understanding the needs of our community,” said Muhammad. “Instead of just throwing out buzzwords — ‘charter schools,’ ‘free enterprise’ — you can’t just say that to us and get a positive reception.”

Romney’s perceived distance from the African-American community entered the spotlight this month when a Politico reporter lost his job after asserting that Romney is only comfortable around white people.

“I think the Governor had a fairly well-crafted speech, I think he just misread his audience,” said Bill Lucy, a member of the NAACP. “I think he thought he was coming into a hostile environment… I think it’s because he mostly speaks to rich audiences and people who don’t have to think seriously about the impact of health care in their lives.”

And Judd Legum and Scott Keyes at Think Progress noted:

The crowd booed Romney when he called for the full repeal of Obamacare and audibly laughed when he suggested he would be a better president than Obama for the African-American community. Also notable was what was left unsaid. Romney failed to address voting rights, which is a major theme of this NAACP gathering.

ThinkProgress was on the scene and talked to some NAACP members after Romney’s speech to get their thoughts. James Waters said some of Romney’s comments were “patronizing,” while Joe Brown argued that Romney “made a serious misjudgment relating to the health care reform.” Allytra Perryman went even further: “I don’t think he has any way to even remotely relate to the everyday citizen, let alone African-American citizens.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jkCVGYnHBfQ%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

Related:

Watch: Romney Draws Boos From NAACP For Saying He’ll Repeal Obamacare

Everything You Need To Know About Mitt Romney…

Huge Jump In Obamacare Popularity Among Independents After SCOTUS Ruling

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News

Blanche Suggests Trump Played Role in FBI Investigation of Georgia Elections Office

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January 30, 2026

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Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suggested on Friday that President Donald Trump had a role in the FBI’s investigation that led to the execution of a search warrant on a Georgia elections office, where ballots from the 2020 election reportedly were seized.

For years, President Trump has claimed that the 2020 presidential election he lost had been stolen, despite dozens of court cases that failed to prove so.

At a press conference at the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, Blanche suggested the president played a role in the investigation that led to the FBI raid, according to Politico.

“Blanche suggested that the probe was related to ‘election integrity’ and that President Donald Trump had a role in it,” Politico reported. Blanche also appeared to confirm the raid was in connection with a criminal investigation.

READ MORE: CNN’s Tapper Flags ‘Killed’ Trump-Related Link in Epstein Dump — Access Restored Fast

“It should be no surprise to many in this room, or anybody watching, that election integrity is extraordinarily important to this administration, always has been and always will be,” Blanche told reporters.

“And so the fact that President Trump and this administration are investigating to make sure that … we are investigating issues around elections to make sure that we do have completely fair and appropriate elections should not be surprising, but I can’t comment on any criminal investigations.”

The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush, during the press conference, posted to social media, “When asked about FBI’s seizure of voter records in Atlanta — Todd Blanche just said that Trump himself ‘is investigating’ voter fraud.”

In modern presidential administrations it would be unusual for a president to play a role in a specific Department of Justice criminal investigation, so as to avoid the appearance of political interference.

READ MORE: ‘We Did Not Protect President Trump’ DOJ Says Upon Releasing Millions More Epstein Files

 

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CNN’s Tapper Flags ‘Killed’ Trump-Related Link in Epstein Dump — Access Restored Fast

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16 hours ago

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January 30, 2026

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Access to a document originally released as part of Friday’s Epstein files document dump that included language related to accusations against President Donald Trump and others allegedly had been removed, according to Jake Tapper. In just under an hour access was restored after the CNN anchor’s social media post.

The page Tapper linked to had read: “We are sorry, the page you’re looking for can’t be found on the Department of Justice website.”

“DOJ has since killed this link,” Tapper wrote. “This is what was there.”

Access was restored about 48 minutes later, according to Tapper’s posts.

According to the screenshot the CNN journalist posted on social media, the document included complaint summaries alleging minors engaging in sexual acts with Trump and others. The complaints are allegations and not proof or evidence of wrongdoing. Donald Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Part of one accusation alleged, “Caller named other individuals involved in ‘big orgy parties’ with her, other young girls, and older Victoria’s Secret models, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.”

“Online complainant reported she was a victim and witness to a sex trafficking ring at the Trump Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes. CA between 1995- 1996,” that same allegation continued. “Complainant reported Ghislaine Maxwell as the madam and broker for sex parties, clients of whom included Epstein, Robin Leach, and Donald Trump.”

The screenshot stated that the “Response” to those complaints was that “Complainant was spoken to and deemed not credible.”

Other complaints in the screenshotted document read: “One of complainant’s ex-girlfriend’s daughters told complainant Trump raped her, as did Epstein.”

The screenshot of the document included multiple allegations that are graphic and include references to rape and murder.

Image via Reuters 

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‘We Did Not Protect President Trump’ DOJ Says Upon Releasing Millions More Epstein Files

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18 hours ago

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January 30, 2026

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More than forty days after federal law required the release of the Epstein files, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it will post about three million additional documents from its trove on Friday.

In addition to the documents, 2,000 videos and about 180,000 images will also be released, according to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who “said the files included images taken by Epstein and others that were on his devices but he didn’t take,” NBC News reported.

“Blanche said that the public should not find within the files the names of any men who abused women in connection with Epstein,” NBC added. “His comments affirm an unsigned statement from the DOJ and the FBI last year that sparked an avalanche of criticism and calls for more transparency.”

When asked by reporters if he had updated the White House on the release of the files, Blanche said, “My team has certain communications with the White House — let me just be clear, they had nothing to do with this review. They had no oversight with this review, they did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what not to redact. They absolutely knew that I was doing this press conference today and I was releasing the materials today.”

Blanche insisted there was no “oversight by the White House” in the process.

Asked if the DOJ is releasing all documents related to President Donald Trump from the files, Blanche told reporters, “I can assure that we complied with the statute.”

“We complied with the act,” he said, “We did not protect President Trump.”

“We didn’t protect or not protect anybody,” he added, while declaring that “that there’s a hunger, a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents.”

Blanche insisted that President Trump has had the “same consistent message about Jeffrey Epstein.” He also insisted that “there’s not been a change, of course, or anything, and certainly his direction to … the Department of Justice was to release the files, be as transparent as we can.”

 

Image via Reuters

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