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.
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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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Natural for any child who loves their parents to feel protective. Something is wrong if they don't. Feeling something and acting on it are two different things.
Now that Tagg has apologized, as he should have, should Obama apologize for the many lies he has told about Romney?
Love him or hate him it is still a Federal Offense to threaten the life of the President... (Republican or Democrate)
He did the right thing even though a bit overdue
Billy Glensays: Your ad hominem attacks on the president for this posting that is not even about him really but the words of Tagg Romney and his disrespect for the presidential office shows just how much Republicans want to blame Obama for literally everything. We are in this financial mess because of deregulation that happened before Obama was in office, etc. I'm not saying he has no responsibility for what we have now but he is not the root cause. You also neglect that Mitt Romney does lie, if you don't want to be called a liar in front of your kids don't lie.
Now all we need is an apology from Obama FOR NOT DOING WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD IN 08 ....Oh My...I guess thats not fair.. LOL....
No matter which party one feels more alinged to, Tagg's gesture tells me that the Romneys are a wonderful family (they certainly raised their son well.) I felt that was decent gesture, character attacks are an unfortunate reality of our political process. We all would have to stand up and indicate "enought is enought", lets stick to issues in order to change that. Thank you Tagg!
Why is this news? Oh yeah it says something negative about a Republican
All of the republitards on here justifying the threat of violence is the very reason our country is in so much trouble. The right is a hive a barbarians and idiots.
Ron, I don't think that he ever threatened the life of the president–especially if you heard the comment (jokingly spoken).
It would be frustrating to watch a man pay over $300M lying about your father.... and then lying in debates and campaign events.
If any black child, especially a young black son said that about a sitting white president they would have hung him by now....
"That brother". Jeeze, they even refer to each other in impersonal ways.
"Ron B
Love him or hate him it is still a Federal Offense to threaten the life of the President... (Republican or Democrate)"
I don't think you can equate wanting to take a swing at Obama with threatening his life.
Any other American would have been at the very least questioned by the Secret Service about public threats to President.
Mitt's son seems to change his mind as much as his phoney dad.
Tagg's behavior is not uncommon for a republican over the past four years. The blatant contempt and disrespect for the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, is absolutely amazing. And to think these are the same people who were attacking anybody who dare utter a word about George Bush. He should apologize. You may disagree with the man, but you MUST respect his office.
Romney kid? Are you kidding me? He's 42 years old!
It's easy to apologize when you own the voting machines.
Is this the same son who Ann said that his missionary work was similar to serving in the US military? I think he's got delusions of grandeur. Funny, how rich kids always got a pair of balls when they are in a controlled environment.
He did not threaten the life of the president. He just said what he was feeling after hearing Obama telling lies after lies about his father. I would want to do the same thing too.
Nothing wrong with it, and I don't blame him. He said what he thought, not what he was going to do. In fact he said he couldn't do it. I was never fans of the Romneys but I have learned through this process that they are decent human beings. Anyone reading what he said and calling that a threat, veiled or otherwise, has reading comprehension issues.
What is the offense for an alleged attempted threat on the life of Mr President?
so typical , it takes 8 years of Republican rule to get us into this mess and evryone expects President Obama to get it all cleared up in 4, give the man a break, be thankfull, we would be in a recession without him, like it or not under his guidance we are moving forward, how any woman iniher right mind could vote Republican is beyond me. OK to support wars, violence, and ignorance but God forbid we should take care of everyone with OBAMACARE.
it sad because if that was obams son said that it would be on news every 2min or theywould say that way black child raise up put go back and look at rommey he did not give obama respect yes very sad obama have did a great job when he iget this four year i think everything will be back on track you got give man change everything was in mess from last man bush people i no obama can trun and make better ps love you all no matter what color are remind baby cant see color it what you teach him or her
Wait a minute... I thought apologizing makes us look weak...?
People get worked up over stupid stuff.