Taggart Romney, son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was interviewed by North Carolina radio station WPTF following the second Presidential debate, and was asked by host Bill Lumaye what it felt like to have President Barack Obama call his father a liar (starting at 00:35 here).

Tagg’s response?:

“[you want to] jump out of your seat, rush the debate stage and take a swing at him”

Which isn’t a brilliant response, particularly from a 42 year old man who should know better than to say something like that on the airwaves, considering that he’s currently serving as an adviser on his father’s campaign to be elected the President of the United States.

I can get why he felt that way — after all, no one who actually likes their father enjoys hearing him called a liar. It’s an emotional thing. It happens. You don’t talk about it on the radio, but it happens.

But this response from Salon.com’s David Sirota takes the topic and (to borrow a phrase from Deadspin.com) abandons the damn yard with this absurd tangent about white privilege:

In a post-debate interview with a North Carolina radio station, Tagg was asked about his visceral reaction to President Obama, and he said his first thought was that he wanted to “jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him.” He then laughed and added, “But you know you can’t do that because, well, first because there’s a lot of Secret Service between you and him.”

One of the hallmarks of White Privilege is the unquestioned and largely unchallenged assumption that white people can say heinous things about people of color without blowback or even mild criticism — things that people of color rarely dare to say about white people, for fear of serious retribution. Tagg — aka Mr. White Privilege — proves the point perfectly. He feels totally comfortable fantasizing about committing physical violence against an African American man. And remember, he’s not just any white guy pondering such grotesque dreams. On the contrary, he’s one of the public faces of a national presidential campaign appearing in a public media interview, meaning White Privilege has made him feel so comfortable airing such notions, that he didn’t hesitate to whimsically broadcast them to thousands of voters.

Seriously? I know that I’m a Hispanic staffer for a newspaper and website that tends to have a leftward lean, but even I’m of the opinion that this was just a stupid, stupid thing said by a son who wants to defend his father’s honor.

There’s nothing that suggests “white privilege” in his comment — I don’t doubt that, had he been asked the same thing about hearing Joe Biden call his father a liar in a public forum, he’d have a similar response.

Tagg Romney needs to be more careful with what he says, and I don’t doubt that he’ll be shuffled behind curtains for some time while his father deflects questions about Tagg’s comment by praising his passion. But to write that Romney said what he did because he’s white and President Obama is black is so empty-headed it defies description.

This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.

14 replies on “Tagg Romney Wanted To “Take A Swing At” Obama and a Salon Writer Made It About Race”

  1. Red Star notes that neither Salon’s David Sirota nor The Tucson Weekly’s David Mendez call Taggert Romney out for failing to say that hitting people is wrong (outside of refereed and organized sport, war, self defense if faced with imminent bodily harm).

    Further, David Mendez’s two key words this in this date’s body of work are “dumb” and “stupid.”

    yep, yep, yep…

  2. That comment was clearly a threat against the President of the United States!!! He should be put away like the guy who threw his shoe at Bush. If a Black/African American man said that about a white president…ALL HELL WOULD HAVE BROKEN OUT!!! Come on now this world is warped!!!

  4. When someone tells enough vicious, slanderous lies about your father, this would be a natural response. To be sure, in as much as the jerk telling these heinous lies is temporarily the President, there are other ramifications.
    A poorly thought out comment perhaps, but perfectly honest and natural reaction by a good man’s son. Bravo for Tagg, he is a credit to his father and to good sons everywhere,

  5. I think it was a stupid thing for Tagg to say but it wasnt premeditated stupid, it was spontaneously and naturally stupid. And i think it does deserve some examining just how we would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. What if Sasha or Malia said they wanted to poison Mitt Romney’s pet hamster? Then who would be up in arms?

  6. The true fact is that the Tea party is a racist party, you can read books and articles about them and their stance. Maybe the secret service should be watching Romney sons, if they say that.

  7. Princeling Tag was obviously exhibiting the creed he has as a former warrior/soldier, having served valiantly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Oops! You mean none of Mitt’s litter have ever been near the military?

    My bad, I guess Tag was just being a jerk, a chip off the old block!

  8. I am now, very contritely, expressing my regret at my previous post. According to an internet search, Tagg Romney served his country by doing his Mormon missionary service in Bordeaux, France.

    I’m sure that this was a daunting service, demanding great personal sacrifice. His Mom, Ann Romney, has stated that her sons served their country in different ways. One of these was their Mormon missionary service.

    I’m deeply touched by their devotion to flag and country. What more can be said?

  9. The privilege is in his actions where he thinks he can say demeaning and insulting things to a black man who also happens to be president of the United States. Because he comes from a dominant privileged class he has been taught he doesn’t have to afford the sitting president of this country the same respect he would a white president.

    The privilege is in the threat of violence which white racist society has always used when they cannot get their way in matters dealing with people of color. This country was founded upon and is still steeped in racism. This president has galvanized a whole new generation of racists and their elders who have always been lurking just benath the surface. Race is omnipresent in all matters because it has never been satisfactorily dealt with. Taggart like his racist forefathers use moments like this to reaffirm their self proclaimed dominance.

  10. I agree, it was a stupid thing to say. But when one liar calls another politician a liar, is it really a racial comment? I guess anything one says against Obama has to be racist, after all he is the second black president. It seems whenever a black person denigrates a white or hispanic, nothing is said, even though it can be construed by some as racist, too.

  11. The writer of the article wasn’t saying that T. Romney wanted to hit Obama because Obama is black. He was commenting on how different the media would have treated the situation if one of Obama’s black relatives had said they’d wanted to hit Romney. It’s the expectation that white men of privilege can say/do things that threaten people of color and it’s treated as no-big-deal. If you don’t think white-privilege is a thing, my guess is that you are white. In fact, being in a position to deny white-privilege, is itself a privilege. If you haven’t read the original article, you actually shouldn’t be commenting on it.

  12. I am white and have had no privileges other than serving my country for 22+ years in the military to come back ans be spit on and called vile names. I worked for everything I have, no one gave me a thing, if that is privilege, I must have missed the boat. After all, Obama didn’t work for anything, his education and community action positions were given to him because of his color. My grandfather had been sold into slavery and forgave his mother for it. My father’s side is part Native American and we dealt with the discrimination. Too often th folks calling others prejudice are the worst offenders. Just an observation during my 65 years on this planet.

  13. “When someone tells enough vicious, slanderous lies about your father, this would be a natural response. To be sure, in as much as the jerk telling these heinous lies is temporarily the President, there are other ramifications.
    A poorly thought out comment perhaps, but perfectly honest and natural reaction by a good man’s son. Bravo for Tagg, he is a credit to his father and to good sons everywhere,”

    I rest my case.

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