2012 Presidential Election

While Mitt Romney is polling strong in Nevada – as her own network had reported – CNN's Ashleigh Banfield still questioned how anyone in the state could “connect” with him over his laissez-faire approach to the foreclosure crisis. Banfield's question came at the bottom of the 1 p.m. hour of Friday's Newsroom. The CNN host dismissed Romney's free market solution as hurtful to his own campaign, as if Nevada voters might not support such a remedy for the housing market. [Video below the break. Click here for audio.] “[H]ow is it that anybody in Nevada, conservative or not, could connect with Mitt Romney when he says something about foreclosures to this effect?” Banfield asked on Friday afternoon before playing a clip of Romney saying the crisis needs to “run its course and hit the bottom” before bouncing back up. “Ouch,” she exclaimed when the clip ended. “I know Republicans and really strong conservatives like the free market economy, but I'm not so sure they like it when it applies to their home and they're underwater. How is this going to play in Nevada?” she asked, dismissing the free market conservative solution to Nevada's housing woes. However, Banfield could easily have asked how Nevadans can “connect” with President Obama over his government-heavy solution to the housing market, given that their unemployment and foreclosure problems are happening under his watch. And GOP guest Gentry Collins pointed to the polls that Romney actually doing well in Nevada. Banfield's own network, three hours earlier, reported Romney ahead in Nevada by 20 points according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal poll . A transcript of the segment, which aired on February 3 at 1:33 p.m. EST, is as follows: ASHLEIGH BANFIELD: One in 75 properties in Nevada is in foreclosure and unemployment in that state is 12.6 percent. So how is it that anybody in Nevada, conservative or not, could connect with Mitt Romney when he says something about foreclosures to this effect? Have a listen. (Video Clip) MITT ROMNEY, Republican presidential candidate: Don't try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. Allow investors to buy homes. Put renters in them. Fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up. (End Video Clip)