Mitt Romney refused to answer reporters' questions on Thursday about his support for Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who has become the latest Republican to find himself in hot water over comments about rape and abortion.
Romney and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) stopped by a Cincinnati diner on Thursday morning. Bloomberg's Lisa Lerer and Reuters' Sam Youngman noted that when they attempted to ask the GOP presidential nominee about Mourdock, he repeatedly ignored their questions. Specifically, Romney avoided answering whether he wanted the ad pulled and if he would disavow Murdock's rape comments.
The Romney campaign thought they could get away with hiding their candidate from press questions through Election Day, but the timing of this Mourdock thing made that impossible. This problem is not going away. This could be one of those occasions where Romney throws a hasty press conference, takes one question about Mourdock, releases a boilerplate statement, and then ignores every other question. That won't play well on the evening news. A Fox News interview won't cut it. I think Romney is going to have to do a major news show to address this question. And Romney taking questions from a reporter is the Romney campaign's worst nightmare.
