Republican candidate Mitt Romney says “tough questions” are just part of the process of running for president.
The televised debate this past Tuesday night among the GOP candidates featured a variety of verbal skirmishes, including a notable moment when Romney and rival Rick Perry quarreled over immigration policy.
“People in our party want to make sure that the person we nominate is someone who can beat Barack Obama and can go toe-to-toe with him in debates,” Romney said Thursday morning during an interview on KSCJ Radio in Sioux City. “…They’re getting a good chance to sort of see us and let us test our muscle and test our rhetoric and test our capacity to respond to challenges which may come our way.”
Romney’s campaign released a video Wednesday which highlighted Rick Perry’s low points in previous debates. One of Romney’s advisors has suggested Perry acted like a bully in this week’s debate. Romney himself seems to suggest tough treatment is to be expected.
“I think it sort of goes with the territory if you’re going to get up on that stage, running for president, you ought to expect to face some tough questions and I have and I’ve asked some tough questions as well,” Romney said on KSCJ. “But we also recognize we’re all on the same team. I think we’ve pretty much all said we feel that anyone on that stage would do a better job leading the country than President Obama and I sure feel that way.”
The intensity of the candidates is a reflection of their party, according to Romney.”So we’re going to face a lot of grilling, a lot of scrutiny and you know there’ll be a lot of information and misinformation,” Romney said. “But over time the American people sort things out pretty well and I think that’ll happen in this process.”
Romney made three campaign stops in western Iowa Thursday. He told a crowd in Sioux City any of the candidates would “love to win Iowa” and Romney said he’d be back to campaign “again and again” before the Caucuses.