Mitt Romney was asked the following questions at an “Ask Mitt Anything” event in Salem, NH, on the afternoon of 01.07.08:
- "According to the New Jersey Law Journal, Judge Richard Russell of Ocean City, NJ made the following statement regarding restraining orders:
"Your job is not to become concerned about the constitutional rights of the man that you're violating as you grant a restraining order," he said. "Throw him out on the street, give him the clothes on his back and tell him, see ya around ...The woman needs this protection because the statute granted her that protection ... They have declared domestic violence to be an evil in our society. So we don't have to worry about the rights."
- A New Mexico judge granted a restraining order against David Letterman based on a woman's claim that Letterman was harassing her with subliminal messages in his television appearances. As a result of the Violence Against Women Act and current domestic violence policy, the judicial oversight in this case amounted to verification that the form was filled out properly with no consideration of the veracity of the claims. This type of judicial oversight is practiced in many states and frequently results in innocent men losing all or most of their meaningful involvement in their children's lives.
- First, is it acceptable to you that restraining orders are granted in this manner and second, if this is unacceptable to you, will you pledge to veto further reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and similar domestic violence legislation without provisions to prevent the issuance of restraining orders based on false claims?"
THE ROMNEY RESPONSE: "I'm not familiar with the Act."
Romeny spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said his boss cares about women who are under physical threat from their partners.
"Mitt Romney is opposed to domestic violence," Fehrnstrom wrote in an e-mail. "He is not familiar with the details of that particular federal law well enough to debate it. As a governor, he is better acquainted with state laws that protect battered women, and he upheld and enforced those laws."
During the town hall in Salem, Romney said that when it came to a court issuing a restraining order against someone, those issues were generally decided on the state level. But he added that in those instances, "The court is wise to put the interest of the child first... If I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of protecting the child."
CLICK HERE to watch the video.
CLICK HERE to read the account in the Washington Post.
Rudov's Comment: Romney knows nothing about VAWA, a federal law in effect since 1994, which unconstitutionally and presumptuously labels men as predators and women as victims, and unconstitutionally protects women while ignoring men in situations of domestic violence. Moreover, Romney hid behind the convenient cop-out of "putting the child first," even though the questions contained nothing about a child.
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