Mitt Romney's concession call 'irritated' Obama

President Obama talks with Mitt Romney on election night, 2012

(Image credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza/Flickr)

published 4 February 2015

Mitt Romney suggested in a post-defeat phone call to President Obama that he only lost because of the black vote, according to Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod.

In his new memoir, which the New York Daily News obtained an advance copy of, Axelrod wrote that Obama was "unsmiling during the call, and slightly irritated when it was over."

"'You really did a great job of getting the vote out in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee,' in other words, black people," Obama said of Romney, according to Axelrod.

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.