“I’d say, No. One, it wasn’t a gotcha interview,” Mickelson,
the host of the radio talk show based in Des Moines, Iowa, told Kathy Glueck atPolitico. “It wasn’t designed as an ambush for Romney.
The clip in question, which resurfaced last week and has
been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube, “left out the context,”
Mickelson said.
The video making the rounds shows Mickelson and Romney
sparring over the GOP presidential nominee’s Mormon faith in the lead-up to the
2008 primary contests. That piece of the interview, which was conducted after
the two were already off the air, continued the on-air interview’s broader
conversation about how Romney’s position on the abortion question had evolved
since his time as governor of Massachusetts, he said.
“It wasn’t about his theology,” Mickelson said. “It was
about the transition of his ethics, and why did he change his view, under what
circumstances. I thought I was asking totally coherent questions that I thought
were softballs.”
But the viral video focuses heavily on questions surrounding
Romney’s religion, as the two delved into religious texts and discussed the
Mormon Church’s positions on subjects including the second coming of Christ and
abortion.
“I’m not running to talk about Mormonism,” Romney snapped
toward the end of the clip.
Mickelson speculated that whoever is behind the YouTube clip
— the user’s identity is unclear — likely wanted to highlight elements of
Romney’s Mormon faith because “it makes him look weird.”
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