Romney launches ad on discredited Obama 'Apology Tour'
Republican Mitt Romney launches TV ad repeating discredited claim that Obama "apologized" for America in the Mideast.
Mitt Romney launched a new TV ad Tuesday called “Apology Tour,” repeating conservatives’ persistent attack on President Obama’s foreign policy – criticism that major fact-checking groups unanimously agree is false.
The idea is that Obama, in several speeches abroad early in his term, including in Egypt, was apologizing for U.S. actions when he lamented that the sometimes-unilateral approach of the Bush administration had, in his view, damaged relationships with other nations.
Obama called it the “biggest whopper” his opponent has told when it came up in their third and final debate Monday night. The groups Factcheck.org; The Washington Post; and Politifact all have called “malarkey” on Romney’s apology meme.
Romney said it was telling in a debate exchange that Obama had omitted Israel, "our closest ally," when listing countries in the region he had visited.
Here is the new ad:
John Yoon and Mack Liederman, New York Times
Matthew Daly and Gary Fields, Associated Press
Karen Tumulty, Matthew Choi, and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Washington Post
Shane Goldmacher, Jonathan Swan, and Maggie Haberman, New York Times
Kellen Browning, New York Times
Seung Min Kim and Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker, Associated Press
Jesse Bedayn and Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press
Justin Jouvenal, Washington Post
Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press
Joey Cappelletti, Associated Press
Beth Reinhard, New York Times
Will Weissert, Associated Press
Linley Sanders, Humera Lodhi and Amelia Thomson-Deveaux, Associated Press
Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking, Associated Press
Peter Baker, New York Times
Stan Choe, Associated Press
Robert D. McFadden, New York Times
Leah Willingham, Associated Press
Will Weissert, Gary Fields, and Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press