The traveling press secretary for Mitt Romney's campaign cursed at reporters on Tuesday who were attempting to ask the presumptive GOP nominee about some of his missteps during his foreign jaunt.
The incident occurred as Romney made his way to his vehicle after visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. Reporters from the traveling press corps accompanying Romney attempted to shout questions at the candidate, who ignored their calls.
But when reporters began shouting questions about whether gaffes — including comments about Britian's Olympic preparedness and Israeli culture that leaders in the United Kingdom and Palestine denounced publicly — had overshadowed the foreign trip, traveling press secretary Rick Gorka admonished them to "show some respect."
A reporter from
The New York Times then pointed out that the traveling press corps had had few opportunities to ask questions during the trip; Romney has only answered three questions during the week from the pack of reporters traveling with him.
"Kiss my a--," Gorka responded. "This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."
Shortly thereafter, Gorka told a second reporter to "shove it."
Gorka later apologized to reporters for his reaction.
Still, the dust-up was evidence that the overseas trip — expected to boost the presumptive Republican nominee's foreign-policy bona fides — might have gotten out of hand.
On Monday, an aide to President Obama's reelection campaign questioned Romney's "preparedness" after what she called a "series of fumbles" during his three-nation overseas trip.
“He’s now been to two countries and he’s had two countries where he has made a series of fumbles," deputy campaign press secretary Jen Psaki said.
"He’s been fumbling the foreign-policy football from country to country. And there’s a threshold question that he has to answer for the American people and that’s whether he’s prepared to be commander in chief. ... This raises some questions about his preparedness,” she said.
The Romney campaign has pointed to the candidate's warm reception by Israeli political leaders and unofficial endorsement from former Polish President and Nobel Prize winner Lech Walesa as evidence that the trip has been a success, despite the criticism from the Obama campaign.
