as the right was attacking richard grenell for being gay, neither mr. romney nor anyone in the romney campaign ever spoke out against it. they never defended mr. grenell for being gay. they never told anybody on the right to cool it with the anti-gay rhetoric. they apparently did not even do so privately. one republican adviser telling "the new york times" today, quote, they believed this was a non-issue, but they didn't want to confront the religious right. so you're privately okay with a gay spokesman being gay, but you won't stand up to people attacking him for being gay. you won't stand up to guys like derek fisher in public. privately, you think they're wrong, but you won't say anything in public about this private feeling that you have that you want to be known. this thing that we might be interested in knowing whether or not it's a way we can judge you. when somebody on the right calls for a scalp publicly and you hand them a scalp, that kind of puts that person in charge. and they know it. this guy brian fisher today was crowing about this being

so while richard grenell is being criticized by the anti-gay rights and by other people for something totally unrelated to him being gay, when it came to the romney campaign, the criticism about his fitness for office, his maturity, his judgment, that apparently did

was quite a resignation from the romney campaign this week this is his foreign policy spokesman richard grenell resigned on tuesday afternoon and here's the explaining why. it's higher had just been announced but mitt romney's openly gay and now former foreign policy spokesperson richard grenell has stepped down following criticism over his sexuality and appointment within the campaign. ok he looks good by now we're going to have to just kidding i live but yes he was an openly gay aide and there was such so much hoopla out there that he actually had to resign over it which i think people are jumping to conclusions on this grinnell was appointed and he came under fire from yes the social conservative right but also from leftist groups like think progress attacked him because he'd been somewhat less than cautious with his words on twitter in addressing certain female members of the media so it was kind of a no win situation after he got a point you know and we don't know why he stepped down we know the new i mean campaign is him to stay he says that they begged him to stay can't he himself said t

and a larger question, why would an openly gay person like richard grenell want to be part of a partyand up for him again and again and again? mark foley joins us now. let's talk about it. gay man -- >> yes, sir. >> we also have with us fred carger. he's on six ballots, making a point. we'll get to you. i know this guy, i don't know you. mark, look, i am -- i study politics. but common sense tells you that mitt romney is b.s.'ing us there. he could've simply said two days ago, don't quit, i need you, buddy. i need you. don't listen to these guys around you. i need you. don't listen to the right-wing guy on the radio, i need you. instead, he lets his staffers call up the guy right before a big briefing which richard grenell, the guy who left this campaign actually set up and said the campaign has requested you not speak on this call. it's best to lay low now. so go on the down low, we don't really want you to be known to be our spokesman because you're gay. why do people put up with this? >> well, they shouldn't, but i honestly believe -- >> why doesn't he tell him to stay? >> too much

i want to get to afghanistan in a moment, but quickly to richard grenell.n even though he has a history of saying these awful things about women in public life, about hillary clinton, he tweeted hillary is starting to look like madeleine albright and first lady michelle obama is sweating on the east room carpet and calista gingrich, her hair snaps on and he's written things about the current u.s. ambassador to the united nations. susan rice, what were you guys thinking when you asked him to be your chief national security spokesman. >> all i know and all we know, wolf, was that richard grenell was an extremely talented public servant who worked for four u.s. ambassadors to the united nations. i worked with him, and in the early part of the 2000s and is an extremely talented guy and we were lucky to have him, to be working for the campaign, speaking on national security issues and foreign policy issues. >> so you didn't have a problem with all those tweets baz he deleted them from the little blog. you said some nafty things about the women. he actually apolo

why would an openly gay person like richard grenell want to be in a party that will not stand up for and again. let's talk about it. gay man? >> yes, he is on six ballots, making a point. mark, look, i studies politics, common sense tells you that mitt romney is lying to us there. he could simply have said two days ago, don't quit, ip need you buddy, i need you. don't listen to these guys around you, i need you. don't listen to the right wing guy on the radio, i need you. instead, he lets his staffers call up the guy right before a big briefing, which richard grenell said the campaign requested that you not speak on this call. it's best to lay low now. we don't really want you known to be our spokesman because you're gay. why do people put up with this? >> they shouldn't, and i believe mitt. >> when your spokesperson is a distraction. >> distraction to who? wouldn't it be great if he stood up for people regardless of orientation? >> he is an incredible person. he deserves the job, and mitt should have stood up. >> this is the problem. let me ask you this way, i will ask you it this w

now richard grenell is an out outloud and proud homosexual. know there is constant stories about raiding gay bath houses and gays having sex in public parks and public restrooms. this is endemic in the homosex homosexual community, these random, frequent, anonymous sexual encounterers. this becomes an issue when it comes to appointing someone to a post as sensitive as national security spokesman on foreign policy. >> not only he was gay but he dared to admit his existence. how dare we. do you know he was also in favor of gay marriage? how can you be in favor of your own rights. how dare he. i love that random snipe. you know they have sex in public and in bathrooms? i believe straight people do that as well. i'm pretty sure i've seen that. now, unfortunately for the republicans, people like brian fish railroad victorious. they alwaysfisher are victorious. >> my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly disminute initialed by the hyper partisan discussion. >> except when they force to you resign. just left out that

he wins the nomination and one week later he hires an openly guy richard grenell who is exceptionallyfor the job but the radical base goes nuts. >> was it a pause in the breeze? maybe there is a lull in the weather pattern, and he was stuck in in the theological right. it makes no sense for him to bow down to the right at that point instead of broadening his base. i was mystified about i think it shows that mitt romney will cave to anyone. >> which does not give anyone comfort of any political stripe as what he will do as president of the united states. paul krugman was here, and he said we don't know what he believes because he has said so many different things at different points of time. you think president obama will do something that is helpful? >> the buck stops in the oval office, that's what harry truman said and the president can overrule his staff who made this mistake and he can sign this policy in the next few months. >> you think the president was not involved in the first decision not to sign it? >> i don't know either way. but i know staff misca

because put everything aside, there is no question that richard grenell was qualified for the job he was hired to do. >> i agree. mr. romney engaged the president on the issue of the chinese disdeny now pleading for u.s. asylum and alleging that he was pushed out from shelter at the u.s. embassy. take a listen to romney. >> if these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and for the obama administration. we are a place of freedom here and around the world and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack. >> i have to ask you, is this not premature politicalization? first of all, the secretary of state is actually in china and second, this is an extremely fragile evolving and delicate situation with a man whose life and indeed his family's life is at stake. and mitt romney just throws himself in and makes comments about the president. >> if you read closely between the lines you will see that mitt romney is in favor of freedom. i mean, it is an absurd statement. it doesn't say what he would do which might be somewhat relevant to the presidential race. th

this could be an opportunity to -- >> would you say this was a terrible mistake, richard grenell shouldstay? >> yes, and go further and stand fast and hard on protection. >> i respect your organization. as president of the log cabin republicans, do you call on romney to reinstate richard? >> rick resigned. the response will be that we asked him to stay. the bigger issue is employment nondiscrimination. >> human rights campaign, what do you think this tells you about it? >> it's concerning, if they're willing to stand aside and let them be influenced on an issue like this -- >> who is brian fisher? >> there is misinformation here. >> what is the american family association. >> their a very anti-gay organization. if they can influence the romney campaign like this, what does it say about what else they will be an influence on. they support a constitutional amendment to ban marriage for same sex couples, so we have an indication from the governor on gernell's leaving, what are we supposed to make of that. >> i think the issue, i think one more point here is important, i think personnel is

richard grenell's conservism was questioned because he is openly gay. romney said he was very qualified. >>> tomorrow looks like this. tonight 10:00 we have a few clouds. then the fog starts to reform right along the coast. so about 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning you have fog. right near the golden gate bridge up at point rays and down the great highway. as we go through the afternoon the fog burns down to half-moon bay. mostly sunny for the rest of us. and then the afternoon a few clouds start to move in. these are the clouds that are going to get ready to bring us a chance of showers as we go into the next 36 hours. i'll have that forecast and i'll run the model right through into thursday and friday. the five day forecast with your weekend in view back here in a few minutes. >>> didn't take long for a state officials to conduct a final snow survey of the season because there was actually no snow to measure today. at the survey area in phillips which is in el el dorado county. over all they found snow totals are 48% of normal. last year's extra supply is

yesterday we told you the story of richard grenell, he was the foreign policy spokesperson for mitt romneye mistake of being gay. and when social conservatives found out they were outraged by it. there's a controversy as to whether the romney campaign pushed him out or he left voluntarily. he -- the daily beast has this perspective on it: and now that's his job on a foreign policy call especially in the middle of all of this bin laden story to speak up but they said since we're getting a lot of heat about you being gay, you hush up and know your place. let's watch this. >> yeah, and that's disappointing. whenever there are voices of intolerance within the party or the democratic party for that matter, it's disappointing, and the governor has taken the opportunity in the past to denounce those voices of intolerance. >> but you are the voice of intolerance. you are the guy that he had to run away from. he left your campaign because of the intolerance. so i love how he's like i guess that's out there somewhere. [ whistling ] >> it reminded us of a piece that david frum has written for news we

richard grenell's conservism was questioned because he is openly gay. romney said he was very qualified. >>> tomorrow looks like this. tonight 10:00 we have a few clouds. then the fog starts to reform right along the coast. so about 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning you have fog. right near the golden gate bridge up at point rays and down the great highway. as we go through the afternoon the fog burns down to half-moon bay. mostly sunny for the rest of us. and then the afternoon a few clouds start to move in. these are the clouds that are going to get ready to bring us a chance of showers as we go into the next 36 hours. i'll have that forecast and i'll run the model right through into thursday and friday. the five day forecast with your weekend in view back here in a few minutes. >>> didn't take long for a state officials to conduct a final snow survey of the season because there was actually no snow to measure today. at the survey area in phillips which is in el el dorado county. over all they found snow totals are 48% of normal. last year's extra supply is

richard grenel upsetting some social conservatives.said this, while i welcome the challenge to confront president obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. he is out. good opportunity for me now to reintroduce our panel this morning. will kaine is with us from theblaze.com. john is back with us this morning, political comedian, and meredith baxter joins us, she has written a wonderful book. we talked when the book came out, this time it's paperback. everybody's favorite mom actor. >> thank you. >> over a million other things, as well. nice to have you with us. let's talk about mr. grenel. some of the tweets about him, he wrote about rachel maddow saying she needed to take a breath and put on a necklace. he said hillary clinton was starting to look like madeline albright. note to children, when your mom's a grandma, don't

. >> how do you think they handle the richard grenell situation?he miss an opportunity to bring in new folk under the republican party? >> he did just do a george w. bush. what is surprising to me is why this crop of republicans won't be as good as george w. bush was in terms of big tent politics saying there's enough room here. we may not support marriage equality. he's missing an opportunity to talk about his lds mormon identity as an identity that could link him to people that's been oppressed. he could say i'm from a people who were pushed out of their homeland, who were pushed out of their state, who were made to flee under dooet. i'm not going to treat a member of my staff. >> melissa harris-perry. we appreciate her coming on. there's a lot more coming up on "the ed show." stay tuned. >>> i've talked to guys who are in their early 40s who have been diagnosed with dementia. >>> president obama is kicking off his campaign tomorrow. romney is writing a letter full of lies. we'll have the latest. >>> hip hop legend mca, adam yauch is dead at the

i'm sure richard grenell is thinking hard about the fact that the man that was once this kid is the man away from his campaign and didn't lift a finger. i'm standing up to the predators with you. mitt can still do that. it can be his ways to say ladies and gentlemen, any name is mitt romney. the same guy that did this bad thing in high school. i asked you to vote for me because i've changed. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. this sunday is monday's day. the "the ed show" starts right now. >>> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show." i'm mick l eric dyson. this sunday some african-american pastors plan to criticize president obama for his stance on marriage equality. tonight i'm going to help my brothers and sisters of the cloth see the light. this is

richard grenel being criticized by some on the far right. said we are disappointed that ric decided to resign from the campaign for his own personal reasons. we wanted him to stay because he had superior qualifications for the position he was hired to fill, end quote. so is the romney campaign leaning further to the right to appeal to social conservatives, ed? >> i'm going to give the romney campaign a little credit here because i think they did the right thing in that they're bringing people on board regardless of their race, religion, gender, or orientation. it's a situation where the far right really tugged at the campaign and, you know, made their voices heard and they weren't real happy about it. it was the right decision to bring him on board. it's too bad he had to leave, and it just shows that, hey, in certain parts of the republican party, they're 50 years behind the times. >> lenny, final word on that? >> well, this wasn't a republican party decision. this was a decision between governor romney and this gentleman and what they shou

i'm sure richard grenell is thinking hard about the fact that the man that was once this kid is the man away from his campaign and didn't lift a finger. i'm standing up to the predators with you. mitt can still do that. it can be his ways to say ladies and gentlemen, any name is mitt romney.

on april 19, the romney campaign announced hiring richard grenell security for spokesman for the campaign. grenell resume is eight years of direct over of communications for the united states for the united nations as george bush appointee. this wee reaction was tweet pepd romney picks out gay asspokesma policy mess message to the pro family community drop dead. a statement reads in part my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues is greatly diminished by the hyper partisan discussion. it sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. i want it thank governor romney for my belief in me and his clear message to me that being openly gay is a nonto me. >> what do you make of what happened here? this is a high profile position spokesman on foreign policy. i just din dint grated that he has foreign policy in his soul. but let's get to this issue. >> governor romney is on record as saying would he hire gays and lesbians in his campaign. they were there before rick got there. they are still there. no different that what george bush did under 2000. having gays and lesbians served is b

. >> the grenell -- richard grenell, interesting back and forth. i wonder, patricia, what you think. it looked like at the beginning here was some sort of vague seeming outreach to perhaps the gay community showing look, we have an openly gay member on our foreign policy team. that sorted looks like he pleased no one. matthew staber in boston globe on grenell's hiring like throwing salt into a wound, the wrong decision if he wants to reach out to the conservative base. supporters of grenell yesterday quoting christopher barren, clearly the romney campaign thought if they could put him 18 box it would go away. it's an unforced error. it doesn't bode well for the romney campaign going forward if they couldn't stand up to the most outrageous attacks. >> no campaign is going to take more than two days of heat over a staffer. i don't think that the romney campaign wanted this to be a big deal. i don't think they wanted to the absymbol. grenell was pretty well in the conservative fabric. >> working as under john bolton. >> very well known. for conservati

richard grenell was hired to be a spokesman for mitt romney.e was immediately attacked from the religious right because mr. grenell is openly gay. bras of the outcry in the two weeks that he was there, he was never used in the capacity for which he was hired. yesterday mr. grenell stepped down writing i quote my ability to vehicle clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper partisan discussion of personal circumstance that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign. the question i need answered is in 2012 someone can't be hired because he's gay? really? come on. this is america. where have we gone? how horrendous is this? joining me is republican strategist and former mccain adviser, ford o'connell and here new york democrat strategist and president of whitman insight strategyies. i just don't get it. >> well, we know that's not true. there is a lot of gay republicans, and i definitely think from a 30,000-foot perspective this doesn't look good for team romney but there seems to be a lot more variables at pla

richard grenel resigned yesterday, an uproar from anti-gay members over his appointment.pain didn't want him to quit but he said he felt he couldn't do this job. what is the impact of this, josh? >> i think in itself it's largely a washington story. most people are focusing on the bin laden anniversary. but i think it's bad for romney because it signals a certain kind of weakness. it was actually a very good move for him coming out of the primary. he didn't have to change a policy, but by appointing someone to a major role, someone who's openly gay, that sent a signal that he wasn't owned by the republican party. >> you don't think he said to him i refuse to accept your resignation? >> i get the sense they really didn't want him to resign, that's what they're saying, but they didn't defend him in any vociferous way while he was being attacked and i think that's the story. >> let me just say that the president's plane is about to come in. i think it's early. from afghanistan. maybe he had a little bit of a political wind at his back or something. there he comes on air forc

i have to agree with mitt romney to fire richard grenell, but it really didn't have anything to do with he posted all over twitter. >> yes they were catty -- sort of anti-female. but they were all about women. so he is a non-partisan catty gay. >> and i was really glad to see rachel come out and defend herself. and i could tell that the string of pearls that she had were genuine. unlike the string i saw michele bachmann wearing this weekend. those were totally fake. >> oh, my god! >> oh my god! >> okay. >> let it go. high road. okay. [ nbc "nightly news" theme ] >> michele bachmann has decided to endorse mitt romney. she said there was no way romney could beat obama. he cannot beat obama that is not going to happen. she had been slipping badly in the polls, but she expected divine intervention. we know i know the one who gives miracles. jehovah god. the end is almost near. >> lord, the day is at hand. we are in the last days jehovah god. >> and please let my husband [ censor bleep ] me. okay. his policy is the basis for obamacare. it's two identicals. not going to happen. we need a bold

we have an update for you on the richard grenell story. grenell, quote, very accomplished and he wanted him to say. he resigned saying that curve backlash against his sexuality made it impossible for him to do his job. the romney advisor called those critical of grenell, quote, voices of intolerance, empathizing that romney only considered his qualifications and not his sexual orient. but in an interview right here on current tv with "the young turks," the indicated radio host said he knew exactly what he was doing. >> he thought he could get some mileage out of this. really play to independents and make him look like a moderate. he was using him as cover. >> mitt romney has promised the base that he would pass a marriage amendment if elected. >>> george zimmerman collected $200,000 through his own crude website before his defense attorney shut it down. now they reopened a new website, saying they are registered and said they would use paypal if anyone would like to remain anonymous. very, very excited about that and very proud of that. >>