What Was Romney Doing in the #missing2min?

When our source secretly recorded Mitt Romney’s comments at a private fundraiser, the recorder accidentally stopped, according to the source; a minute or two passed before it was restarted. The source provided all the recorded material to Mother Jones, and we published all of it. Unsurprisingly, right-wing pundits have stoked conspiracy talk about the estimated two-minute break in the recording. (Never mind that Romney didn’t refute anything from his long talk, instead admitting that his remarks were “not elegantly stated,” and doubling down on them.) So the internet did what it does in these cases: It started a meme, #missing2min. What shocking revelations existed therein? Here are some suggestions from the hive mind:

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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