WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- President Obama's senior campaign adviser Sunday criticized Mitt Romney for politicizing the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya.
Romney, speaking Friday at a rally in Richmond, Va., said the vice presidential debate Thursday raised new questions about what happened at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other State Department employees or contractors were killed, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
"Yesterday I raised some questions about Benghazi and the tragedy that occurred there, and there are more questions that came out of last night because the vice president directly contradicted the sworn testimony of State Department officials," Romney said. "He's doubling down on denial, and we need to understand exactly what happened. ... American citizens have a right to know just what is going on and we're going to find out."
Robert Gibbs, in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" said he thinks playing politics with the issue is the wrong perspective.
"Ambassador Stevens' own father said today this shouldn't be a political issue, this should be an issue we get to the bottom of for our investigation. We should bring those that did this to justice," Gibbs said.
"[Romney] has done nothing but politicize this issue when what we need to do is find out what happened and do that as Americans, not as Democrats and Republicans."
Gibbs described Romney's initial reaction to the incident as "shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy," adding that "his own party called him out for insensitivity."
