Obama Calls Fox News Reporter Ed Henry Mitt Romney's 'Spokesperson' (VIDEO)
President Barack Obama suggested that Fox News Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry is "the spokesperson for Mitt Romney" Thursday during a press conference the president held together with the visiting President of South Korea, Lee Myung-Bak.
The president reacted to Henry's question about a recent statement made by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in which Romney criticized the head of state.
President Obama gave the Fox News reporter the privilege of asking the first question of the conference.
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"President Obama, I wanted to get your first reaction to the Iranian terror plot. Your Secretary of State called it a dangerous escalation. What specific steps will you take to hold Iran accountable, especially when Mitt Romney charged last week, ‘If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President - you have that President today'?"Henry asked.
"Well, I didn't know that you were the spokesperson for Mitt Romney," President Obama replied to the laughter of the room. Then he continued to answer the question about Iran, without further alluding to Romney.
The journalist was referring to a statement Romney made during a speech on national security given in South Carolina on Oct. 7. The former Massachusetts governor reportedly said then:
"I will not surrender America's role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. You have that president today," which suggested that Obama is a weak leader in international policy.
Romney suggested that his followers should "embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America's time has passed."
Romney is still considered by most the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, despite various poll results, one of which gave the leading spot to Herman Cain recently.
Henry wanted to get the president's response specifically based on Romney's words, to see how the leader would engage with his potential future opponent, he told Fox's Megan Kelly the same day.
"I specifically asked the president to react to Mitt Romney, the presidential front runner," he defended his question on Kelly’s show. "He did not want to engage in that, even though I was just quoting what one of the leading Republican candidates out there is saying right now."
In response, Kelly suggested that something was "going on" between Romney and Obama.
"That happens all the time in these White House Q&As that you quote somebody else," she said.
Kelly asked Henry why would the President take an issue with a quote from the former Massachusetts governor..
Henry concluded that his question was completely natural, as journalists are constantly quoting others and asking the president to respond.
"I think everybody can see that he [President Obama] chose to not engage with Mitt Romney, and instead decided to kind of go after me a little bit," he told Kelly.
