On Meet the Press, Romney Rips Ryan's Vote for Defense Sequester

In a Meet the Press interview aiming to stanch the bleeding after a miserable convention fortnight for the GOP, Mitt Romney slammed the defense cuts in the sequester portion of the debt agreement reached last summer.

The same deal that Paul Ryan voted for.

Here's Mitt from the interview, airing tomorrow morning:

DAVID GREGORY: Republican leaders agreed to that deal to the extend the debt ceiling.  

MITT ROMNEY: And that’s a big mistake. I thought it was a mistake on the part of the White House to propose it. I think it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it.

What's more, as TPM's Benjy Sarlin notes, Ryan didn't just vote for the sequester. He specifically noted how proud he was of the fact that the impact of the sequester -- including the defense cuts -- would be so hard to avoid:

“What conservatives like me have been fighting for, for years, are statutory caps on spending, legal caps in law that says government agencies cannot spend over a set amount of money,” Ryan told FOX News’s Sean Hannity shortly after the agreement was reached last August. “And if they breach that amount across the board, sequester comes in to cut that spending, and you can’t turn that off without a super-majority vote. We got that in law.”

Trumpeting internal discord at the top of the ticket is probably not the way Republicans hoped their standard bearers would try to counteract Obama's increasingly substantial post-convention bounce.

Update:

Some similar thoughts from the Twittersphere:

Romney Slams GOP Leaders - Including His Own VP Nominee - for 2011 Budget Deal > abcn.ws/QqcVca

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 8, 2012

So now the Romney campaign's making Ryan condemn the sequester he voted for? Remind me why they picked him again?

— delrayser (@delrayser) September 8, 2012

Someone should tell Romney that we wouldn't have the sequester if it wasn't for Paul Ryan.

— Travis Waldron (@Travis_Waldron) September 8, 2012

Romney could have chosen a governor and run against dc dysfunction; instead he tapped paul ryan and is now running against his running mate

— Tim Dickinson (@7im) September 8, 2012

So Mitt Thinks Ryan Has Bad Judgement @thehill: Video: Romney: GOP leaders made 'mistake' on debt deal, defense cuts bit.ly/Ni9FxO

— John Dean (@JohnWDean) September 8, 2012