Team Obama rips Romney's 'treason' answer

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CLEVELAND, May 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama's re-election campaign condemned likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney's non-response to a woman who accused Obama of treason.

During a campaign event near Cleveland Monday, Romney criticized Obama's comments on the Supreme Court when asked by a woman whether the former Massachusetts governor thought Obama was "operating outside the structure of our Constitution," and "should be tried for treason," USA Today reported.

"Time after time in this campaign, Mitt Romney has had the opportunity to show that he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric and time after time, he has failed to do so," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said.

Romney later told CNN he doesn't "correct all of the questions that get asked of me."

"Obviously," Romney said, "I don't agree that he should be tried."

When he was in the race, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., was taken to task for not correcting a comment made during a Florida town hall meeting that Obama is a Muslim. Obama is Christian. After the town hall event, Santorum told CNN he didn't think it was "my obligation every time someone says something I don't agree with to contradict them."

During the 2008 campaign, GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona corrected a woman during a Minnesota event who said Obama was a Muslim.