Campaign Ad Lies

The other day on "60 Minutes," apparently President Obama said that some of his campaign ads, quote, "go overboard." Romney called it a reckless disregard for the truth. On September 25, 2012 CNN "Keeping Them Honest" host Anderson Cooper said: Today in Ohio, CNN's National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta asked Mitt Romney about his ads.

ACOSTA: Just the other day, you said the president has been trying to fool people with his ads and his speeches about your record, but fact checkers have also taken issue with your ads. Haven't you also played fast and loose with the facts from time to time? ROMNEY: We've been absolutely spot-on and any time there's anything that's been amiss, we correct it or remove it. The president, on the other hand -- ACOSTA: Even the welfare ad? ROMNEY: Look, it has been shown time and again that the president's effort to take the work requirement out of welfare is a calculated move, the same thing he did with regards to food stamps. He took work out of welfare -- excuse me, work out of the food stamps requirement. What was the result? The study shows that twice as many people went from having food stamps to -- those that are able-bodied to -- as a result of that change. ACOSTA: But PolitiFacts calls it pants on fire and the "Washington Post" gives it four Pinocchios. ROMNEY: Well, there are -- there are – ACOSTA: They're wrong? ROMNEY: You look at the facts. Did he take the work requirement out of welfare? ACOSTA: I think what the Obama administration has said is that no, they're trying to give governors the flexibility to increase the amount of work that goes into receiving welfare benefits. You're saying you don't buy that. ROMNEY: No, no. No, no. You always have the capacity to add work. There's never been a requirement that you can't have more work. The requirement that they're waiving was saying that people don't have to work to get -- to get welfare. That's the change that they proposed. I disagree with that -- with that direction. I think the president also -- I disagree with the direction on the work requirement as it related to food stamps. Look, taking work requirements out of government assistance is, in my opinion, a very -- a very bad course to take and creates a culture of dependency. We help people who need help. We want to help people that need help. But the idea of removing work requirements I think is a mistake. COOPER: Well, "Keeping Them Honest," as you just heard…and Factcheck.org said this, quote, "A Mitt Romney TV ad claims the Obama administration has adopted a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements. The plan does neither of those things." COOPER: So, Jim, you pressed Governor Romney specifically on that welfare ad which as we said independent fact checkers have said it was false. He didn't back down. Not only did he not back down, he seemed to double down on it. ACOSTA: That's right…I've asked 3 separate Romney campaign officials to get back to me with some kind of citation or example. They just haven't done that at this point.