Romney Won’t Tell Trump to Stop Birther Comments
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Ethan Miller/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Nobody wants to tell Donald Trump what to do or say, and that includes the presumptive Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney.
In an interview this afternoon with CNBC, Romney declined again to condemn Trump’s remarks throughout the week that claimed President Obama was not, in fact, born in the United States.
Asked why he doesn’t just tell Trump to “knock it off” with the birther comments, Romney responded, “Well I disagree with it — I think that there’s no question but the president was born in the United States of America.”
“I don’t go around telling all my supporters what they should think or what they should say but he knows what I believe about this,” said Romney. “I think the real issues of this campaign and the issues Americans care about are not issues of the president’s personality or matters of that nature, but instead the issue is the president in a position to lead Americans and get inside of these economic goal posts and put families back to work.”
Trump spent the beginning of this week monopolizing news coverage with his birther claims, the same week he held a high-dollar fundraiser for Romney in Las Vegas, leading to questions as to why the candidate did not distance himself more from the comments.
Romney said earlier in the week that he realizes he will not agree with everything his supporters say and that they will not always agree with him.
At the fundraiser, held Tuesday night at the Trump International Hotel, President Obama’s birthplace was not mentioned.
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