CBS's Rose: Many Took Romney Firing Line Out of Context; Schieffer Was Among Them

On Wednesday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose acknowledged the widespread spinning of Mitt Romney's "I like to fire people" remark. The anchor asked Romney, "Do you regret the firing comment because of the way it was interpreted by some?" The previous morning, Rose's colleague, Bob Schieffer, was one who spun the GOP candidate's line, claiming it was just shy of saying "Herbert Hoover is my hero."

Schieffer pounced on Romney's "firing" line during a segment with Rose on Tuesday's CBS This Morning, even after correspondent Jan Crawford noted during a preceding report that the sentence was being "taken completely out of context" by several of his Republican competitors. The "Face The Nation" host all but said that the presidential candidate had stuck his foot in his mouth:

ROSE: Let me talk about New Hampshire. We have seen upsets before in New Hampshire- Hillary Clinton four years ago. Is anything happening on the ground that might surprise us?

SCHIEFFER: Well, other than Mitt Romney looking for every way he can to try to lose and drive down his percentage of victory. I mean, yesterday, this (laughs) 'I like to fire people'- I mean, I guess the only thing worse you could say is- in a time like this, when people are out of work, is that Herbert Hoover is my hero or something like that. (Rose and Schieffer laugh) I mean, it just boggles the mind. I mean, you know, his people are saying it was taken out of context. But, you know, when people are out of work, there's certain words you just avoid, and saying 'I like to fire people' is one of them, whatever context that was taken in...

Romney appeared on the CBS morning show seven minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour. He replied to Rose's question by stating that the remark "points out that...when we have service providers, like insurance companies, we want to be able to get rid of them, and as long as people read the whole sentence, why, it's fine...I can't worry about all- the way people are going to parse partial sentences. Life's too short to worry about how that's taken."