Romney advisor: Pres. Obama ‘lazy,’ ‘disengaged’

>>> mitt romney 's debate performance has fired up the republican base and they're hoping a better performing candidate alongside their nationwide attempt to suppress the democratic vote will propel him to the white house . but not so fast say those concerned to protect voting rights . joining us is congressman elijah cummings , democrat of maryland. good afternoon, sir.

>> martin, good to be with you.

>> i want to ask you about your investigation into voter fraud in a moment, about first, may i have your reaction to something that a top adviser to mitt romney just said only moments ago. please listen.

>> what people saw last night, i think, was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is.

>> governor, i want to give you a chance to maybe take it back. did you really mean to call barack obama , the president of the united states , lazy?

>> yes. i think you saw him admit it the night before when he delivered the pizzas. he said, you know, they're making me do this work. he didn't want to prepare for this debate. he's lazy and disengaged.

>> that was top romney adviser john sununu on the president's performance last night. we're actually now looking at a live picture of the president who is on stage in madison, wisconsin. he looks fairly full of energy to me. he appears to be hard-working. what would you say, sir, to mr. sununu ?

>> i would say to mr. sununu he doesn't know what he's talking about. i have worked with the president over the last four years who has given his blood, sweat, and tears to turn this economy around, and i think he's done a very good job of that and he's still got a lot of work to do. and the fact is that this president because of people like mr. sununu in the republican party , republicans have done every single thing in their power to stop this president from accomplishing what he's accomplished. but he's accomplished more, martin, in his three years and eight months than most presidents do in eight years. so i think mr. sununu needs to take those words back, as we say in the congress. i think it's very unfortunate for somebody to be saying that about this president who has done a great job.

>> mr. romney said last night he wants to sit down with democrats and work out a solution to health care and so on. what ft. you're faced with a president romney . what would you tell him about health care ?

>> what i would tell him is that health care is probably the most important thing that we have done in this congress because it's saving many people's lives.

>> you haven't done much else, sir, have you?

>> i would say to him that i don't think that he has a plan to replace it. he's not going to replace, martin, addressing the pre-existing conditions, our young people staying on their policies until they're 26 years old, and helping the people i see in my district who now are able to get health care that weren't able to get health care before. and so, you know, again, i think mr. romney talks about his success, by the way, with regard to the folks in massachusetts, but he's got to remember that he was dealing with a democratic congress -- democratic legislature who wanted to get things done for the people in massachusetts.

>> he's claiming it's all credit to him, sir. mr. romney keeps telling us that actually he's the genius who works with people on the other side of the aisle and this president is incapable of doing so.

>> let me tell you something, i deal with the republicans in congress every day, and they said from the very beginning that they wanted to make him a one-term president, and they have done every single thing they can imagine to stop him, and he's still been successful. so i don't buy that.

>> congressman, there's a republican consultant by the name of nathan sproul who has been accused of irregularities with the voter registration drive he was running for the national republican party . now, you have asked mr. sproul to appear before congress.

>> yes.

>> why have you asked for him to appear?

>> because he has ran an operation in florida where it has been shown that they have been -- people have been filling out applications for -- that were fraudulent, wrong addresses, people's false names and basically playing with the registration process, and he has a history, by the way, of throwing away registration forms that were prepared for democrats. and by the way, martin, this is a group that was hired by the national committee and hired by the florida committee. and they are -- we know for a fact they are doing these fraudulent things in some five different states. and so we want to get to the bottom of this. why are you doing this? and who is responsible for this, and we want to know why were you paid, mr. sproul , some $3 million by the republican national committee to do these things?

>> indeed. very, very important questions, sir, and i hope that mr. sproul answers them. congressman elijah cummings , thank you, sir, for joining us.