Politics

Romney spends 35 seconds dodging yes-or-no question from The Daily Caller

David Martosko Executive Editor
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HOOKSETT, N.H. — At a campaign stop Monday afternoon, former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney dodged a yes-or-no question about whether or not Attorney General Eric Holder should resign over the “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal.

Romney had just finished lecturing a teenager about energy policy. When she asked him to answer a question, he said he would “if I can answer it ‘yes or no.’”

When she couldn’t come up with a yes-or-no, The Daily Caller asked one.

“Governor, should Eric Holder resign over ‘Fast and Furious’? That’s a yes-or-no question, governor.”

After Romney initially ignored the question, The Daily Caller asked it a second time.

Romney wheeled around, took a break from shaking hands, signing autographs and answering voters’ questions, and took 35 seconds to explain why he wouldn’t answer the yes-or-no question.

“I do press [availabilities] and then I answer questions, that are important questions, in the length that I want to do,” Romney said. “But what I don’t do is in a group like this is stop and rattle off questions to people just as we walk along.” (RELATED: Republican congressman endorses Romney, incurs tea party wrath)

“So that way,” he continued, “you don’t get the chance to hear the full answer that I’d like to give. So those are important questions. I’ll be happy to address them in a press avail or at the town meeting. But in these events, at events like this I don’t take press questions, because it doesn’t give you or me the chance to have a full discussion of the topic, when particularly it’s an important one like that.”

Romney hasn’t been asked the question in a public debate yet.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, his fellow GOP candidate, answered the same question without objection earlier on Monday.

“This is an extremely serious set of facts that we’re looking at,” Bachmann told TheDC in Henniker, N.H. when asked if Holder should resign. “There needs to be a full investigation. And surely he should resign… if the facts prove to be what they appear to be.”

Romney made his way to a waiting SUV while press aides repeatedly told the crowd “No questions!”

A Romney aide told TheDC after the governor left that he would hold no press availability or press conference that day.

Asked for comment about the candidates’ contrasting approaches to reporters, Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart reiterated that “Michele has been very accessible to the media. We have press avails after virtually every event… We welcome the opportunity to answer questions from members of the media.”

David is The Daily Caller’s executive editor. Follow him on Twitter