(CNN) – Tagg Romney, Mitt Romney's oldest son, apologized to President Barack Obama Monday for saying he wanted to "take a swing" at him during contentious presidential debates.
Obama and Tagg Romney were seen speaking on the stage after Monday's final presidential debate, held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Two Obama aides said the conversation included an apology for the remark, made last week during a radio interview.
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Asked in that interview what it's like "to hear the President of the United States call your dad a liar," Tagg Romney joked about his fantasy response.
"Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him," he said. "But you know you can't do that because, well, first because there's a lot of Secret Service between you and him, but also because that's the nature of the process. You know they're going to try to do anything they can do to make my dad into something he's not."
"We signed up for it, we've got to kind of sit there and take our punches, and send them the other way," he continued.
One of Tagg Romney's brothers, Josh, downplayed the comments in an interview on ABC's "The View."
"That brother has slugged me a couple of times," Josh Romney said. "I'm sure President Obama has nothing to worry about."
Asked about the original comments on Thursday, Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said Tagg Romney was "joking about how frustrating this process can be for family."
CNN's Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report.
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Tagg, you are a gentleman to apologize to our president. I understand exactly how you felt during those debates. If someone insulted my dad unfairly, I would want to take a swing at him too. But 0bama is still our president so we need to respect him physically.
Romney/Ryan 2012!
This is the new America. That kind of disrespect for the President of the United States would have never been accepted years ago.
He didn't mean it... just avoiding jail.
Overblown. Move on.
So disrespectful, just like his dad.
The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
Romney's a bully and he raised his sons that way. Remember, Romney bullied a kid in high school!
You don't ever disrespect the President of the USA by saying something like that - no matter how much you disagree with him. Seriously .. an urge to be violent? My God. Romney needs to teach his kids some basic values.
What is this country becoming, where people no longer even respect the office of the President??? So much for fake patriotism of the Republican creeps.
Oh come on CNN do some big boy reporting.
He's a freak like his dad
What happen to listen. It's ok for your
father to dish it out, but not to receive.
"From the Heart the Mouth Speaks" What more must President Obama endure as President, How many more personal attacks is he going to take and when he decides to fight back CNN you call it an "ATTACK' Wake up CNN.
President Obama has the class to phrase it a bit more diplomatically, but the fact remains: Romney is plainly a prevaricator of the first order.
Tagg or "Flapjack , Dweezle" , what ever he´s called , has to realize that his old man is a liar and a crook .
Hiding money off shore , selling out American Jobs to China claimimng he has no idea his "Blind Trust"
was doing that , (Yeah ...Right , you don´t get that stinking rich without knowing where every penny is going )
are actions evil people like him and CHeney do every day . Get over it and Buck up dude , face reality your old nan´s a sleeze and not president material . Pushing around a few servants at the country club does not a president make .
Bad enough that we have to deal with Romney. Now his sons are on the rampage? If Romney, God help us, becomes President, if Putin says something bad about him, are his sons going to punch him out?
Even though I am not supporting Romney, I respect his son for apologizing. This can be very frustrating for family. Just like Tagg Romney said, you just have to sit back and take it. It's the nature of the beast. I understand the candidates have to go at each other and state their case but as long as they are civil it's fine by me. This has been a vicious slug fest and it's good to hear about some civility no matter what side of the political aisle you are on. At the end of the day, we are all Americans.
And I really hope he meant it! C'mon, this is sillly.
Mitt put a lot of pressure on tag to say he was sorry the romney family are bullies mitt is trying so hard to tell the public that he is a nice gvy
the romney family of wimps and whiners.
He's a lucky man...Obama should have drone his turkey tail for talking to the President like that.
Honestly, this is a non-story about a non-incident. At the same time, he's old and experienced enough to know better than to joke like that in the political arena. He was wise to apologize.
He's a Flip Flopper too ! How Cute !
Now his son is doing the apology tour
well that only took a week. The president was gracioud. The romney clan is not/ Forward.
Blatant lack of respect for the President, unbelieveable disregard.
I wish he would have.