Tension Inside the Romney Campaign?
Published at
Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — A report out Monday exposes deep internal rifts within the Mitt Romney campaign focused on a person Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei call Romney’s “mercurial campaign muse” — top strategist Stuart Stevens.
“Viewed warily by conservatives, known for his impulsiveness and described by a colleague as a ‘tortured artist,’ Stevens has become the leading staff scapegoat for a campaign that suddenly is behind in a race that had been expected to stay neck and neck through Nov. 6,” Allen and VandeHei write in the piece that notes Romney “has allowed seven distinct power centers to flourish inside his campaign.”
One person quoted anonymously in the story, who the reporters describe as a “longtime Romney friend” complained: “The campaign has utterly failed to switch from a primary mind-set to a general-election mind-set, and did not come up with a compelling, policy-backed argument for credible change.”
Much of the story centered on Stevens’ heavy-handed involvement in the drafting of Romney and running mate Paul Ryan’s Republican National Convention speeches.
Speaking to ABC’s David Muir, Stevens responded to today’s Politico article, saying “they got my quotes right.” And responding to the criticism from voices on the right about how the Romney campaign is being run, he said: “I never get mad at people who criticize.”
In the interview with Muir, Stevens continued to reiterate how President Obama’s convention bump is evaporating, saying “the President had a terrible week last week.”
Watch David Muir’s Good Morning America report on the internal squabbles within the Romney campaign: http://abcn.ws/StjfL2
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio