WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Barack Obama will
host his former political rival Mitt Romney for a private lunch at the
White House Thursday, their first meeting since the election.
Obama promised in his
victory speech earlier this month to engage with Romney following their
bitter campaign and consider the Republican's ideas.
"In the weeks ahead, I also
look forward to sitting down with Gov. Romney to talk about where we
can work together to move this country forward," Obama said at the time.
Obama aides said they
reached out to Romney's team shortly before Thanksgiving to start
working on a date for the meeting. The two men will meet in the White
House's private dining room, with no press coverage expected.
In the days after his loss,
Romney told top donors that the president was re-elected because of the
"gifts" Obama provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters, all of
which are core Obama constituencies.
"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said.
Many Republican officials,
eager to move on quickly after the loss, disputed Romney's comments and
urged the party to focus on being more inclusive.
White House spokesman Jay
Carney said Obama was looking forward to having a "useful discussion"
with his former competitor. But he said there was no formal agenda for
the lunch.
While in Washington, Romney
will also meet with his former running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan,
according to a Romney campaign aide. Ryan is back on Capitol Hill, where
he's involved in negotiations to avert a series of automatic tax
increases and deep spending cuts that have come to be known as the
"fiscal cliff."
Much of that debate centers
on expiring tax cuts first passed by George W. Bush. Obama and Romney
differed sharply during the campaign over what to do with the cuts, with
the Republican pushing for them to be extended for all income earners
and the president running on a pledge to let the cuts expire for
families making more than $250,000 a year.
The White House sees Obama's victory as a signal that Americans support his tax proposals.
Obama and Romney's sit-down
Thursday will likely be their most extensive private meeting ever. The
two men had only a handful of brief exchanges before the 2012 election.
Even after their political fates became intertwined, their interactions were largely confined to the three presidential debates.
Romney has virtually
disappeared from politics following his loss in the Nov. 6 election.
He's spent the last three weeks largely in seclusion at his family's
southern California home. He has made no public appearances, drawing
media attention only after being photographed at Disneyland in addition
to stops at the movies and the gym with his wife, Ann.
Former aides confirm that
Romney is expected to move into an office at the Boston-area venture
capital firm Solamere Capital. The firm was founded by his oldest son,
Tagg Romney, and Spencer Zwick, who served as his presidential
campaign's national finance chairman.
It's unclear what role, if
any, Romney will play at the firm. Former aides said Romney was
subletting office space from Solamere.
