Kerry Calls Romney's Russia Position 'Breathtakingly Off Target'

Mitt Romney’s hardline position on Russia was attacked once more on Friday, this time by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who called it “breathtakingly off target.”

Romney previously called Russia the U.S.’s No. 1 geopolitical foe. But because of the improving cooperation between the two nations, Kerry said it does not help the standing by making an enemy with such strong statements.

“I think that candidate Romney has been breathtakingly off target and naive and in fact wrong in his judgment about Russia when he said Russia is our number one foe,” the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “I cannot think of any statement that frankly more inappropriately threatening and simply wrong by any calculus than that.”

Kerry said the U.S. faces graver problems in the Middle East currently, specifically with the evolution in Egypt and growing terrorism in Yemen.

Earlier this week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who served in the Bush administration, said of Romney’s statement, “Come on, Mitt, think.” He said that Romney’s “hyperbolic” rhetoric could create enemies were there weren’t ones.