Romney's son apologizes to Obama for 'swing' remark
(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.
- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
- Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.
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.
From CNN Politics
- Trump ramps up rhetoric: Dems want 'illegal immigrants' to 'infest our country' June 19, 2018 06:45 pm
- What's happening at the US border
- White House deputy chief of staff to leave June 19, 2018 09:09 pm
- Trump to huddle with Republicans during crucial week on immigration June 19, 2018 08:41 pm
- The Point: 5 ways Kirstjen Nielsen's press conference on family separation was a total disaster June 19, 2018 01:15 pm
- Why Trump is digging in on separating families at the border June 19, 2018 01:23 pm
SS should have taken Tagg down!
We're missing a very valuable point. TAG is not a child. He's not even a teenager. According to his twitter timeline, he's the father of 6 children, a husband, the eldest of Mitt Romney's sons. He's should be mature enough to understand the process and control his emotions. That is the difference between adults and children. Self Control! This is not new to him, his father was a governor.
We all make mistakes, you can't criticize him for disliking his father being called a liar, he didn't mean it
why apologize? the way these so-called leaders act toward each other is like kids in a sandbox arguing over the same shovel. these two liars are fighting over control of the big red button. I would take a swing at both of them if i had the chance. same with the NHL owners and players... the 2 richest, greediest groups of millionaires on the planet.
Obama and Romney are both incompetent to begin with. someone should remove all of them from the planet.
Not a surprising remark for someone named "Tagg" actually...
I don't believe he would have apologized had it not been for the political fallout. It wasn't a joke; he was serious. Now that the new Romney campaign strategy is the :I'm the victim here" "I'm the nice guy" reverse psychology meme, this is part of the cleanup.
Obama would wipe the floor with the spoiled rich kid.
No, he ahud not apologize, I wud feel the same if it was my father too
You know what? The republicans/conservatives seem to have made a lot of harmful statements this election...and most (Romney leads the pack) seem to think they can make those statements and when there is backlash, like Palin, claim everything was taken out of context or they were wrong. It is really easy to say something that gets out there to befuddle your audience and then apologize. I doubt that this Tagg guy really is sorry. If it were any other person, the secret service might consider him to have made a threat against our president and investigated it. But once again a Romney person got away with crap. How about Ann Romney appearing to flip the bird at our president? The Romneys seem to have values that are bullying and mean.
I don't think Obama is the type to just let someone take a swing at him. He is fit and looks like he can defend himself. Just because he is the President, doesn't
No it didn't require an apology, but he had the class to apologize. Says a lot about his upbringing and his family!
Why anybody would want that job is beyond me. My heart goes out to the families. I don't know how any of them can bear it.
"Tagg"? Seriously? No wonder he wants to hit someone. Hit Miit though, he's the one responsible for naming you.
The ones who had the opportunity to listen to that audio, for sure we know that Tagg wasn't joking about it.
why apolozige now? if you knew this was a wrong thing to say in the first place. I guess if your dad is become the next president of United States, the 47% middle class American people will be punish by your dad's administration. In addition; why none of his sons never served the country?. shame on you body !!!!!!!!!!
He was afraid of Lawrence O'Donnell.
Another media conjured controversy ... glad to see this is top news on CNN?
By the way my dad could beat up your dad.
He should have never apologized!
I think that was nice of him to apologize for such remarks against President who is still in office and popular. Candidates should prepare family members to not get personal and obviously Romney did a poor job of preparing his family. Anyways... what he did to clearify himself was a good judgement call.
Wow. This is one of the top stories for CNN? No real news to write about? No matter which side one is on.
I tend to be a bit left of center... but to be honest... an honest emotional response of Tagg for the pressure the family is under. No news here. Move along.
As the son, most likely the father.
awww...clearly Tagg is such a sweet boy....bless his heart. He was only kidding.
Now the liberals have even more ignorant ammo. How stupid for anyone to give him a hard time for what he said. Liberals as a whole are out-crazying the tea party. Who would have thought that was possible? Respect is given when it is recieved. Liberals have been twisting Romneys words, then calling him a liar when he doesn't go along with the liberal propaganda. I'd want to take a swing too. He's allowed to have an emotional response. He's not running. Just like when the Obama girls called McCain a scary little old man. Did they have to apologize? No. They called it as they saw it, but most importantly families are off limits for the most part. It really does surprise me how immature Obama and the dems have become. Who would have thought that Romney would be the one being the bigger man?!
He should have apologized for the blatant lies MItt told.
I imagine that job requires overtime though.