Romney's exit interview

>>> time to reflect, yet mitt romney is still divorced from reality. in an interview with chris wallace of fox news, romney pointed to his failure to connect with minority voters as the real reason for his loss. yet romney is still convinced that his messaging was the problem? really? not his policies? okay. here is the former republican nominee attempting to explain his 47% remarks.

>> yeah, it was a very unfortunate statement that i made. it's not what i meant. i didn't express myself as i wished i would have. you know, when you speak in private, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted and can come out wrong and be used. but i did, and it was very harmful. what i said is not what i believe. obviously, my whole campaign, my whole life has been devoted to helping people, all the people. i care about all the people of the country. but that hurt there is no question that hurt, and did real damage to my campaign.

>> when the story came out, why didn't he say just that? we all know that those 47% remarks weren't just a one-time gaffe. romney made similar comments in a conference call to donors after the election, blaming his loss on president obama 's handing out gifts to minority groups ? romney is still convinced that is the case.

>> the president had the power of inincumbency. obama care was very attractive, and they came out in large numbers to vote. that was part of his successful campaign.

>> the man who created romney care believes the affordable care act was romney 's way of using patronage to secure votes? but again, romney asserts. his loss was a messaging issue, certainly not a policy problem.

>> the weakness that our campaign had and that i had is we weren't effective at taking my message, primarily to the minority voters, to hispanic americans , african- americans , other minorities. that was a real weakness. we did real well with a majority population, but not with minority populations. and that was a failing. that was a real mistake.

>> why do you think that was?

>> well, i think the obama care attractiveness and feature was something we underestimated, particularly among lower incomes.

>> joining us tonight katrina vanden heuvel , part owner and publisher of "the nation" magazine. thank you for your time.

>> thank you, thank you.

>> what is the purpose? you can go to anybody that didn't win an election, john kerry , al gore , bob dole . this was a strange interview. what is the purpose?

>> not clear to me. the romney revival tour? i think he wanted to repeat that what he said is not what he believed, ed? i'm not sure. this is mr. 47%. he is trying to say, as you said, that it was the messaging. no, it was very clearly, this election was, a mandate on policies that a majority of americans didn't want. this man is speaking about how he couldn't connect with minorities as the great demographic shifts in this country occur. yeah, if you talk about self deportation as the answer to our immigration policy , i don't think you're going to connect well with latinos in this country.

>> doesn't the party -- maybe not so much in the next candidate, because the party is going to have to address the mistakes that were made by romney . doesn't the party have to come forward with some admission that it was wrong where they were on policy?

>> but here is what i don't understand, because i think this romney interview is irrelevant. what stuns me, ed, is that this republican party doesn't seem to understand a basic fundamental american concept. elections matter. you have a republican party which continues a scorched earth obstructionism after its policies have been repudiated. it sits in washington and tries to tell the american people that government is broken. no it's not. it's bought. the republicans are butt even more than the democrats. but their policies have failed. and the republicans put up an example of the most brazen excesses of vulture capitalism and still adhere to that is a discrediting of a republican party that we need in this -- we need a real republican party . but at the moment it is white, male, pale, stale. and even jeb bush is backtracking on his policies because they still have the same billionaires running this party, ed, and they've got the same base. you can rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic but until they take a really soul-searching hard look, this party is in deep trouble.

>> they're convinced, the family is, the romneys never got a chance to show the real mitt.

>> give me a break. i mean, it is the most sort of tired trope in american political history to do the blame the media. give me a break. the campaign kept him in lockdown. so he didn't really grapple with his mormonism and his faith, nor did he really move to try and explain his business success . they can't have it both ways. ann romney , with all respect for the wife of a defeated politician is saying they got sort of run over by the media. the only media that ran them over, ed, was fox, because they lived in a bubble of delusional thinking that they were going to win and this and that. karl rove election night , remind your viewers, he literally walked into the control room to say no, we didn't lose. yeah, you did.

>> what do you make them believing that obama care sealed his fate?

>> i find it ugly, because it is a kind of rerun of his 47, you know, moochers, takers, and makers. if the power of incumbency is to provide universal health care , which we need to build on, to millions, 30 million americans , if that's patron and corruption and giveaway, then this man should -- particularly romney care, the man who created romney care should understand that this is part of american political life , and it's a reform that this country has fought for. and part of what millions need. but he hasn't given up on the 47%.

>> no. no.

>> he says he wasn't understood that like i said what i didn't believe? it is so romney , because that's part of why, you know, if there is a tragedy to romney , he reinvented himself and reinvented himself. and he made the flip-flop seem like a tired tactical move because he flip-flopped so many times. there must be a new term for that.

>> is the ego big enough for him to even think that maybe '16? i know it's crazy political talk.

>> it's not about romney . you know that, ed. you know politics better than anyone. it's about this party. they don't.

>> they have issues. they have to disavow from what he is saying right there.

>> yeah.

>> they have to admit --

>> and he knows that. he knows that. that's why there is a sadness. defeated politicians are sad.

>> katrina vanden heuvel , good to have you with us. thank you so much. the dow jones closed within 50 points of an all-time high. but workers' wages are in the dumps. i've got some numbers for you next to explain all of that.

>>> and john boehner thought that he could get away with lying about the sequester on national television. he thought wrong. we're calling him out. and our congressional panel will do the same. stay with us.