Updated Friday, November 30, 2012: President Obama and Mitt Romney met face to face yesterday for the first time since the election, sharing private lunch at the White House as negotiations over the looming fiscal crisis seems to be stuck on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Pete Souza/White House)
Watch: Mitt Romney and President Obama’s Private Lunch at the White House (ABC News)
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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012
New York (TADIAS) – President Obama and his one-time Republican challenger, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, will have lunch at the White House on Thursday, the President’s press secretary announced in a statement released on Wednesday.
“Governor Romney will have a private lunch at the White House with President Obama in the Private Dining Room,” the statement said. “It will be the first opportunity they have had to visit since the election. There will be no press coverage of the meeting.”
“In fact, the meeting will be closely watched,” The New York Times noted. “The two men competed intensely for the better part of a year. Mr. Romney, in private conversations with donors shortly after the election, blamed his loss in part on the president promising “gifts” to Democratic constituencies like minorities and students.”
In their election night speeches, both men were complimentary of each other. “I wish all of them well, but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters,” Mr. Romney said in his remarks. For his part Mr. Obama extended an olive branch to his former rival saying he looked “forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together.”
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