A top surrogate for Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused the Obama campaign of being a “bunch of liars” and said “I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”
Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu lambasted President Obama and his aides in a conference call with reporters. Later when asked about his criticism of the president, Sununu appeared to try to walk back his remarks. He said he meant to suggest Obama does not understand the American way of business.
“The president has to learn the American formula for creating business,” Sununu said. “The American formula for creating business is not to have government create business.”
Sununu’s harsh words for the president are part of an escalation in rhetoric on both sides in what is shaping up to be a tough presidential campaign.
A top Obama aide last week, for example, suggested that Romney may have committed a felony – a major crime – by allegedly providing false information on federal securities forms. Fact checkers who examined the issue, however, said there was no evidence to support the Obama camp’s charge.
In a separate interview on Fox Tuesday, Sununu suggested the true felons are politicians from Chicago – the city where Obama learned the political ropes.
“For them to use the word ‘felon’ in the discourse reminds people that the president came out of that murky soup of politics in Illinois where, as I’ve said before, ‘politician’ and ‘felon’ are almost synonymous,” he said.
Sununu, who served as chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush, is known for a brash in-your-face approach. He’s tangled several times with reporters along the campaign trail.
Tim Pawlenty, another top Romney ally, said on Tuesday that Sununu did not mean to imply that Obama was un-American. He said it was appropriate for Sununu to back away from his initial comments.
The Obama campaign immediately blasted Sununu, saying in a statement that the “Romney campaign has officially gone off the deep end.”
Romney’s people said the same thing about their opponents last week after the felony accusation.
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