Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who had been on Mitt Romney's shortlist of running mates, said she disagreed with comments made by Romney in which the former GOP presidential candidate said President Obama won the election by offering specific incentives to minority voters.
In a conference call with donors on Wednesday, Romney called policy initiatives like the Obama administration's healthcare reform law, efforts to reduce student loan interest and a new immigration directive "gifts" to young and Hispanic voters in order to win them over to his side.
"The president’s campaign focused on giving targeted groups a big gift — so he made a big effort on small things," Romney said.
On Thursday, Ayotte said she disagreed with the remarks.
"I listened to the comments, I don’t know what the context fully was. I don’t agree with the comments," Ayotte, who served as a Romney surrogate during the campaign, said on MSNBC. "I think the campaign is over and what the voters are looking for us to do is to accept their votes and then go forward. We’ve got some big challenges that need to be resolved."
"The voters have spoken and they want us to come together to solve our problems."
Democrats and the White House were quick to attack the remarks after the Los Angeles Times first reported them. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Thursday said the remarks were "at odds with the truth of what happened last week."
