LAS VEGAS, Nevada - October 18, 2011 - Mitt Romney was thrown off balance for the first time in the 2012 race, as a gang of primary opponents assailed him on the issues of health care and immigration during Tuesday night’s GOP debate.
Romney has largely coasted through a season’s worth of Republican candidate fora. That appeared to change in Nevada on Tuesday, as multiple rivals blasted his record from the right - starting with the universal health care law Romney signed in Massachusetts.
“You just don’t have credibility, Mitt, when it comes to repealing Obamacare,” charged former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. “You have no track record on that that we can trust.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich piled on: “There’s a lot of big government behind Romneycare. Not as much as Obamacare, but a heck of a lot more than your campaign is admitting.”
Those bruising hits may have been overshadowed by a harsher, more personal attack against Romney from Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who accused Romney of knowingly allowing illegal immigrants to work on his house.
“You hired illegals in your home, and you knew about it for a year,” Perry said. “The idea that you stand here before us and talk about (how) you’re strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy.”
The attack referred to a 2007-vintage report from The Boston Globe, which revealed that a company Romney used for lawn care had hired illegal workers.
The former Massachusetts governor pushed back against both sets of attacks but struggled at times to get a word in edgewise against opponents who repeatedly interrupted him.
