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Romney Campaign Press Release - Mitt Romney: "You Didn't Build That" Is President Obama's Philosophy

August 22, 2012

"What [President Obama] said was not a gaffe. It was not a slip of the tongue. What he said was his philosophy. He said that if you have a business, you didn't build it, someone else did that.  ... I don't know where he was going with that idea because, you know, in this country, we value people who work hard to improve their skills and to get education to get smarter. We value people who work hard." – Mitt Romney

Remarks

Bettendorf, IA


August 22, 2012

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MITT ROMNEY: "And what he said was very revealing. We've spoken about it a few times. These guys and gals have on their t-shirt 'I did build it.' You've seen the signs around here. That LeClaire Manufacturing built this enterprise with the hands right here. What he said was not a gaffe. It was not a slip of the tongue. What he said was his philosophy. He said that if you have a business, you didn't build it, someone else did that. And he says, well that was taken out of context. Go look at the context. You can look at the speech on YouTube. The context is worse than the quote because he says if you're successful, you may think you're successful because you're smart, or you're successful because you work hard. Well, a lot of people are smart he says and a lot of people work hard. I don't know where he was going with that idea because, you know, in this country, we value people who work hard to improve their skills and to get education to get smarter. We value people who work hard. We recognize the power of individuals who lift themselves and their achievement. We celebrate and recognize achievement of all kinds in our society, knowing that as we do so we will have more achievement and more success. We don't apologize for success here. This is something we celebrate."

Mitt Romney, Romney Campaign Press Release - Mitt Romney: "You Didn't Build That" Is President Obama's Philosophy Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/303045

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