'I Was Wrong at the Top of My Lungs' (Video)
A day after being let go by Fox News, Dick Morris appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight to defend himself — and his erroneous prediction that Mitt Romney would win November’s election by a “landslide.”
Asked by host Piers Morgan how he was doing on Wednesday night’s show, Morris quipped that he was “a little battered and bleeding.”
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Morris famously declared before November’s election that the Republican candidate would easily beat President Obama and would carry 325 electoral votes. Romney, of course, lost to Obama (with a finally tally of 332 electoral votes compared to 206 to Romney). On Wednesday, Morris defended his prediction to Morgan.
“I absolutely believed it, and so did a lot of people,” he said. “Rasmussen and Gallup both predicted a Romney victory. CNN had a 47-47 tie race in its final poll 48 hours before the polls opened.”
As for why he was let go, Morris replied, “Because I was wrong, and I was wrong at the top of my lungs.” He added, “Maybe I’m being made a poster child for that.”
He added that he had a “wonderful talk” with Fox News chairman Roger Ailes about a week ago.
“He said in this business, you’re up, you’re down, nothing is final or fatal,” Morris said, adding that he doesn’t hold any resentment.
“Fox has given me the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “Fifteen years, 3,000 interviews. And at some point a great marriage has to come to an end. … The divorce isn’t final, but I am seeing other people.”
As for why Ailes chose to drop Morris but keep Karl Rove — who allegedly riled insiders when he challenged the network’s own decision desk’s early “call” that Ohio went for Obama during the election — Morris said he didn’t know why he had been “singled out,” in Morgan’s words.
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He added that he hasn’t made many mistakes, pointing to his prediction of Bill Clinton’s re-election in 1996 as well as George W. Bush’s wins in 2000 and 2004.
“I have gotten 30 senators and governors elected, 14 presidents and prime ministers,” he boasted. “The president of the United States twice. And — one and a half, I worked with others in the first go around. So I’m OK on that score.”
Morris later turned to the topic of why Romney lost the election, blaming it on Hurricane Sandy. He said that before the storm hit the East Coast in late October, Obama was trailing his Republican rival.
“Fifteen percent of the voters made up their minds in the last 72 hours, and they cited Sandy as No. 1,” Morris said.
Piers Morgan Tonight airs weeknights at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET on CNN.
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