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Romney Takes Heat For Libya, Egypt Comments

Catherine Green |
September 12, 2012 | 12:14 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Can Romney bounce back? (DonkeyHotey/Flickr)
Can Romney bounce back? (DonkeyHotey/Flickr)
Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney may have caused irreparable damage to his own campaign with remarks criticizing President Barack Obama's reaction to violence in Libya and Egypt Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported Romney is standing by his comments, despite significant criticism. "It's never too early to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend out values," he said during a Jacksonville, Fla., news conference.

See Romney address the attacks and his remarks below.

Among those critical voices are several political experts and foreign policy hands, who called the remarks off-key and hastily made. 

From BuzzFeed:

"They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it’s just completely blown up," said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand, who called the statement an "utter disaster" and a "Lehman moment" — a parallel to the moment when John McCain, amid the 2008 financial crisis, failed to come across as a steady leader.

…"I guess we see now that it is because they’re incompetent at talking effectively about foreign policy," said the Republican. "This is just unbelievable — when they decide to play on it they completely bungle it."

Read more from party insiders at BuzzFeed. Neon Tommy will continue to follow developments following the violence in Egypt and Libya. See more of our election coverage here.

 

Reach Executive Producer Catherine Green here; follow her here.



 

Buzz

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