Some Michigan Democratic lawmakers were quick to blast presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney today in light of revelations that he bullied classmates as a student at Cranbrook School while his father, George Romney, was governor of Michigan.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Romney led a prep school posse in the spring of 1965 who pinned down a student and cut off his long, bleach-blonde hair as the teen’s eyes teared up and he screamed for help.
Romney apologized today to fellow classmates at the elite Bloomfield Hills high school who may have been offended by his “hijinks and pranks during high school,” according to The Associated Press.
Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, denounced Romney’s teenage behavior during a speech Thursday on the Senate floor.
“What kind of message does it send to our students when Republicans continue to support a candidate who thought it acceptable to bully a classmate while in high school and shrugs it off with a laugh when asked it about it today? Romney needs to not only own up to his past mistakes but listen to our students who struggle far too often today with this exact type of bullying so he understands the terrible impact in can have on their lives.”
State Sen. Bert Johnson, who is running for Congress this year in the 13th District, went further, claiming Romney has a pattern of bullying throughout his life.
“While it does not come as a surprise that the man who built up his personal fortune by firing people and killing American jobs was a bully in high school, and while Mitt Romney’s actions in and of themselves are not characteristics most Americans want in their president, the most appalling part of this story is his claim of not remembering the incident in question. … We all make mistakes in our youth. The worst way to make things right is to ignore them or say we don’t remember. Mitt Romney is a bully and his decision to try and sweep this under the rug, rather than own up to his mistakes like an adult, is yet another in a litany of reasons why he is unfit to be our next president.”
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