John McCain On Hardball: "The Views Of My Mother Are Not Necessarily The Views Of Mine"

By Logan Murphy — November 9, 2007

GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain appeared on Hardball yesterday with his 95 year old mother, Roberta. We all have family members who say or do things that embarrass us from time to time, but rarely does it happen on national television -- this was one of those moments.

It's obvious that Mrs. McCain is very proud of her son and she did a wonderful job touting his experience and service to our country. But when she was questioned about one of her son's opponents, Mitt Romney, she wandered into strange territory, leaving Senator McCain scrambling into damage control mode;

Matthews: "...You don't think Romney's done much heavy lifting for America then?"

R. McCain: "No, I don't. I think being Senator - uh a Congressman, uh, a Senator - whatever it was, a Governor for four years. And as far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City caused that scandal and to clean that up, I - it's, it's not even again, it's not a subject."

J. McCain: "The views of my mother are not necessarily the views of mine."

(nervous laughter from Sen. McCain and Matthews)

R. McCain: "Well that's my opinion and you asked me."

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