When someone tells a journalist or media personality that something is “off the record,” that typically means nothing he shares can be published or related to anyone else.
Someone might want to alert conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. On Fox News Tuesday, Ingraham told anchor Bill O’Reilly she recently partook in an “off the record” lunch with 2012 Republican presidential nominee and potential 2016 candidate Mitt Romney. Then she proceeded to share the details of their conversation.
Ingraham said the meeting took place at a ski resort in Utah. “We just had a very impromptu casual lunch,” she said.
“We talked about family stuff. It was off the record, so I can’t go into it,” Ingraham said, right before going straight into it.
“He asked me first, ‘What do you think [about the upcoming 2016 election]?'” she recalled. “I mean, I said the same stuff I say on this show: It’s time to unite the [Republican] party and whoever unites the party is going to be the winner.”
More details from Ingraham: Romney prepared her a vegetable soup and hot cocoa and “had about a hundred grandkids running around.”
The Fox appearance was not the first time Ingraham shared information about her chat with Romney. In a story published Monday, she told the Washington Post that Romney “was relaxed, reflective and was interested in hearing my thoughts on the American working class.” She added, “He was fully engaged and up to speed on everything happening on [the] domestic and international front. To me, it didn’t seem like he was content to be just a passive player in American politics.”
So much for off the record.
