Mitt Romney speaks in Iowa on Oct. 9. (Evan Vucci/AP)
[UPDATED: 2:40 p.m. ET] Mitt Romney's campaign told ABC News it would stop citing the meeting with Glen Doherty.
The mother of Glen Doherty, a Navy SEAL who was one of four Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attack in Libya, told a Boston TV station that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney shouldn't politicize her son's death.
Romney told an Iowa campaign audience on Tuesday about a chance encounter with a Navy SEAL during a Christmas party in San Diego, although he did not invoke Doherty by name. Romney owns a home in California and Doherty was stationed there, serving in the military. Romney cited the SEAL's dedication to the Middle East and his commitment to foreign service as a way to draw a contrast with President Barack Obama's response in the region, which Romney has criticized as lacking in leadership. As Yahoo News's Holly Bailey reported:
Citing a CNN report that Doherty had been killed while trying to help others at the consulate, Romney expressed his admiration—and likened it to the leadership he says the country needs now in Washington.
"When he and his colleagues there heard that the consulate was under attack ... they went there. They didn't hunker down where they were in safety. They rushed there to go help," Romney said. "This is the American way: We go where there's trouble. We go where we're needed. And right now we're needed. Right now the American people need us."
After Romney's remarks, Barbara Doherty told Boston's WHDH 7News that the GOP nominee shouldn't invoke her son that way again.
"I don't trust Romney," she said. "He shouldn't make my son's death part of his political agenda. It's wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama."
Romney has amplified his criticisms of Obama's foreign policy and defense record with a speech on Monday that fact-checkers and the Obama campaign said was rife with errors and policy reversals.
