Speaker Boehner: You Don't Need To Love Romney To Support Him

At a June 30th fundraiser in Wheeling, West Virginia, Speaker John Boehner told the audience of 200-300 that Republicans don’t need to love Mitt Romney to get behind him.  The comments came in response to a woman asking Mr. Boehner “can you make me love Mitt Romney?” 

After conflicting versions of Mr. Boehner’s exact words, the Speaker’s office provided Roll Call with the following version of Mr. Boehner’s reply to the woman’s question:

“No,” Boehner said. “Listen, we’re just politicians. I wasn’t electedto play God. The American people probably aren’t going to fall in lovewith Mitt Romney. I’ll tell you this: 95 percent of the people that showup to vote in November are going to show up in that voting booth, andthey are going to vote for or against Barack Obama.  

“Mitt Romney has some friends, relatives and fellow Mormons … somepeople that are going to vote for him. But that’s not what this electionis about. This election is going to be a referendum on the president’sfailed economic policies.

“Mitt Romney believes, just like we do, that if we’re going to getthe economy back, if we’re going to put the American people back towork, we need to fix the tax code, we need to stop the regulatoryjuggernaut that’s going on in Washington and we need to fix our economy.Solid guy, he’s going to do a great job, even if you don’t fall in lovewith him.”

The fundraiser was hosted by Robert Murray, CEO of the Murray Energy Corp.