TRAGEDY: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama comfort State Department staff in DC yesterday. (
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WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney doubled down on his attacks on President Obama’s handling of new Middle East turmoil yesterday, accusing the administration of “sympathizing” with protesters who attacked the US Embassy even as the country mourned the slaying of a top diplomat.
Romney’s renewed slams came amid reports that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the slaying of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three staffers were likely the work of al Qaeda-linked terror groups.
Democrats hit back hard by accusing Romney of exploiting the tragedy, and Obama painted his rival as an unsteady cowboy.
“Gov. Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” Obama told CBS yesterday. “As president, one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that.”
But Romney stood his ground.
“I think it’s a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values,” Romney told reporters in Florida yesterday. “That instead when our grounds are being attacked and being breached, that the first response of the United States must be outrage,” he said.
As angry protests over a controversial film mocking the prophet Mohammed formed outside the US Embassy in Cairo Tuesday, diplomats there issued a statement that condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.”
That statement struck some as an odd preemptive apology, and the administration disavowed it.
“It didn’t come from me. It didn’t come from Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton. It came from folks on the ground who are potentially in danger,” Obama said. “And my tendency is to cut those folks a little bit of slack when they’re in that circumstance, rather than try to question their judgment from the comfort of a campaign office.”
But Romney said Tuesday night, “It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
“The president takes responsibility not just for the words that came from his mouth, but the words that come from his ambassadors, his administration, from his embassies . . . They clearly sent mixed messages to the world,” Romney followed up yesterday.
Most top Republicans, including running mate Paul Ryan confined their remarks yesterday to condemning the attacks and mourning the death of the embassy staff.
“Who is giving Romney this advice on politicizing death of ambassador? Comes across as inexperienced and craven,” tweeted John Weaver, a former adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain.