Romney Trip an ‘Embarrassing Disaster,’ Obama Aide Says
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Jeff Swensen/Getty Images(WARSAW, Poland) — Mitt Romney shrugged off one final blow-up on Tuesday, as his three-country international tour ended with a top aide cursing out the press in Poland and a senior adviser to President Obama’s campaign calling the Republican’s turn on the world stage an “embarrassing disaster.”
The crude outburst came on the final day of a tumultuous trip that has featured a controversy at every stop along the way, from Britain to Israel and Poland.
When reporters lobbed questions at Romney on Tuesday about the gaffes, campaign spokesman Rich Gorka told reporters that they could “kiss my a**” and, to one in particular, “Shove it.”
The exchange occurred as Romney left the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw and Gorka told the reporters to “have some respect…This is a holy site for the Polish people.”
Gorka has since apologized for the “inappropriate” choice of words.
Romney told Fox News on Tuesday that the controversies on the trip were the result of the press “trying to find anything else” to write about.
“I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whatever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran,” Romney said.
“They are instead trying to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country,” he said.
Obama’s campaign has barely disguised its enjoyment of the trip’s controversies.
“[Romney] both offended our closest allies and triggered a troubling reaction in the most sensitive region in the world,” said Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs, who described Romney’s trip as an “embarrassing disaster.”
On Monday, Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod tweeted about Romney’s trip, calling it “Romney’s rolling ruckus.”
Romney’s problems began when he angered the mayor of London and other Brits by suggesting the city wasn’t prepared to host the Olympic games. He also prompted a Palestinian leader to complain Romney made a racist comment when he suggested national culture contributed to Israel having a stronger economy than Palestinians.
The Chinese government also chided Romney on Tuesday for stating while in Israel that the U.S. should move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s “capital” in Jerusalem.
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