Brian Williams Mocks Romney For...Pumping His Own Gas?

A picture of Mitt Romney pumping his own gas in La Jolla was a big hit on the internet Tuesday after getting posted at Reddit.

For some reason NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams decided to do a story on it Tuesday evening specifically designed to mock the former presidential candidate (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BRIAN WILLIAMS: You know the old expression “riding high in April?” Well the rest of the lyric might as well be pumping your own gas in November. Mitt Romney had a campaign plane, secret service detail, and motorcades just weeks ago. He was spotted pumping his own gas in California today looking unlike the man we saw on the campaign trail. He later showed up at Disneyland. Earlier in the week, he took his wife Ann to the “Twilight” movie, later to Sammy’s Pizza, a local place. On the upside he has his life and his family life back after most of six years spent pursuing the presidency.

So how does Williams think Romney gets gas in his car? Does the NBC Nightly News anchor think the Romneys have a servant do that?

Also of note was the laziness involved in this report.

As Yahoo! News reported Tuesday, the picture was taken Monday not Tuesday as Williams said.

In addition, the photographer in question claimed, "I talked to [Romney] for a good three minutes while he was filling his tank. I guess he's moving to one of his houses in the town I live in, La Jolla."

If you're familiar with La Jolla, this is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, here's Romney's house there right on the beach:

Horrors!

What Williams also missed was that another less unflattering picture was taken of Romney at the same location and posted on Twitter:

Looks just like "the man we saw on the campaign trail" doesn't it?

I guess Williams thought it was far better to air the one that made Romney look like an angry white guy:

(HT NB reader Demetre Deliyanakis)