It was only one short year ago when Donald Trump, star of reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice” and real estate mogul was dominating headlines with his ridiculous claims about President Obama(over, and over, and over again). Now it’s 2012 and “the Donald” is back as a surrogate for the Romney campaign. And although his absurd claims were cleared up over a year ago, Trump is forging on as the leading voice of extremists in the Republican Party.
Donald Trump’s role in the Romney campaign, as reported by Politico:
“The Donald is also hosting a high-dollar fundraiser for Romney at his Las Vegas hotel tonight, along with Newt Gingrich (who himself spent months stoking questions about the president’s sympathies with people of the Muslim faith) — providing a high-profile joint appearance on the heels of Trump’s latest declaration, one that Democrats are calling on the Romney to denounce.
“‘He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth,’ Trump said about Obama’s birthplace, basing his assertion on a literary biography written for Obama that was recently unearthed by Breitbart.com. ‘The literary agent wrote down what he said… He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.’”
Not only is Mitt Romney fundraising with Trump, he refuses to denounce these offensive claims made by extreme voices in the Republican Party about the President of the United States, which have already been proven untrue. Here is Mitt’s response, reported by CNN:
“You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney told reporters when asked about the issue. “But I need to get 50.1% or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”
Many view Mitt Romney’s refusal to stand up to Donald Trump’s extremist statements as an indicator of Romney’s leadership skills. Others have compared him to Republican nominee John McCain, who publicly admonished similar claims from his supporters in 2008. The DNC’s press secretary responded to Romney’s failure to distance himself from Trump:
“’Once again Mitt Romney is failing the moral leadership test,’ DNC press secretary Melanie Roussell said in a statement. ‘Instead of rejecting Donald Trump’s ‘birther’ conspiracy theories and divisive attacks, he’s endorsing them by campaigning and fundraising with him… This type of false and extremely divisive rhetoric has no place in the political discourse of our country and Mitt Romney should stand up against it instead of standing with Donald Trump to raise money for his campaign.’”
Watch the comparison of the “Two Republican Nominees” here.