Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney's openly gay Foreign Policy and National Security spokesman, has resigned from his post after the Romney campaign allegedly silenced him.

In a statement, Grenell said:

"I have decided to resign from the Romney campaign as the Foreign Policy and National Security Spokesman. While I welcomed 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. I want to thank Governor Romney for his belief in me and my abilities and his clear message to me that being openly gay was a non-issue for him and his team."

According to a source close to Grenell, his decision to resign came after the Romney campaign "put Ric on the shelf and wouldn't let him engage on anything with the media," while national security issues became the focus this past week. The source said Grenell wanted to "take the fight to Obama" over accusations by the President and his campaign that Romney would not have ordered the risky operation to take out Bin Laden last year. But the Romney campaign became too "squeamish", instead only allowing surrogates like John McCain to respond. (read more)

Mitt Romney met with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning over breakfast, aides to both men told FOX News.

The meeting, which took place in Manhattan, was the first between the two men since Romney cemented his role as the presumptive Republican Nominee last week.

Both Republicans and Democrats have sought Bloomberg's coveted endorsement in the past. As the owner of the multi-billion dollar Bloomberg News empire, his backing has clout with the business community and Wall Street, a group that has been cool to President Obama since taking office.

Bloomberg is also a well-regarded independent, credited with steering New York City's economy back to strength following the September 11th attacks.

But an endorsement from 'Hizzoner' could cause problems for Romney - Bloomberg's views on immigration and gun control don't gel with positions Romney staked out during the primary, a potential pitfall for his standing among conservative voters.

Portsmouth, NH - Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney said today "of course" he would have given the order to kill Usama Bin Laden.

When asked by reporters after a rally if he would have given the order to take the former Al-Qaeda leader out, Romney responded "Of course. Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order."

The Obama campaign has recently suggested Romney wouldn't have made the decision to assassinate bin Laden. That decision is seen as one of President Obama's crowning achievements during his first term.

Asked Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press if Romney would have pulled the trigger on the bin Laden raid, former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "I don't think it's clear that he would." (read more)

Portsmouth, NH - Striking a populist tone, Mitt Romney attacked President Obama's record on job creation, saying his administration has made it more difficult for small businesses in this country, and promised things would change under a Romney administration.

"Small business has really felt like it's been under attack over the past several years," Romney told a crowd of local fisherman and residents on a pier in Portsmouth, the state's largest coastal city. "If I become president of the United States, I am going to be a pro small business president and fight for the rights of small business people"

Acknowledging the recession contributed to a drop in small business startups, Romney placed a large portion of blame on President Obama's policies, including an increase in regulations put in place by Washington. "Regulators are just multiplying like proverbial rabbits and making it harder and harder for enterprises to grow and to understand what their future might be," Romney said.

In a response statement, Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said Romney was "distorting" the President's record. "While initiating an overhaul of the regulatory system that cuts red tape and will save businesses $10 billion over the next five years, President Obama has also approved fewer new regulations than President George W. Bush did during the same time period in his term." (read more)

South Park, PA -- One day before the Pennsylvania primary, a critical battleground state in the upcoming general election, Mitt Romney addressed what will likely become a key issue during the fall - energy.

Surrounded by employees at Consol Energy's Research and Development Facility, Mr Romney assailed President Obama's policies, blaming them for the increase in energy prices.

"The onslaught of regulations -- holding off on drilling in the Gulf; holding off on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf; holding off on drilling in Alaska; trying to impose the federal government into fracking regulations...all the regulations relating to coal," Mr Romney said, ticking off a list of policy decisions made or continued by the Obama Administration. "These things have made the cost of energy go up."

Mr Romney has made energy independence a continual refrain on the campaign trail, advocating a policy using all energy sources in order to break America's dependence on foreign sources of energy. He has repeatedly criticized the President for relying too heavily on renewable energies - solar and wind - at the expense of more traditional, carbon based fossil fuels. (read more)

Scottsdale, ARIZONA - Mitt Romney defended his father, George Romney, after Montana's Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer said the Republican presidential front runner's dad grew up on a "polygamy commune."

During an interview with Fox News Chief Political correspondent Carl Cameron on Friday, Romney, who is a practicing Mormon, emphatically stated, "My dad's dad was not a polygamist. My dad grew up in a family with a mom and a dad and a few brothers and one sister."

Saying he hadn't seen the comment Romney told Fox, "They lived in Mexico and lived a very nice life there from what I understand and then when he was 5 or 6 years old there was a revolution in Mexico, They escaped... My dad had a very tough upbringing."

Schweitzer made the comment in an interview - when talking about Romney's problems with Latino voters, he said its "kinda ironic, given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he'd have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico."

Romney's father, George, was born in Mexico and moved to the US as a child before becoming the CEO of American Motors and the Governor of Michigan.

Mormonism allowed polygamy at one time, but banned the practice in 1890.

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Lorain, OH - One day after Barack Obama's trip to the Cleveland area, Mitt Romney attacked the president for failing to follow through on his 2008 campaign promises, and said Obama's "vision" has led to economic distress.

"If you want to know where his vision leads, open your eyes, 'cause we've been living it for the last three years," Romney said to about 300 people gathered at a shuttered drywall factory in Lorain, Ohio. "It leads to lost jobs, lost homes, lost dreams. It's time to end that vision and have a vision of growth and jobs and economic vitality."

The speech served as a rebuttal to remarks made by the President Wednesday - part of a larger bracketing strategy the Romney campaign has employed in recent days. Through a number of speeches Romney is trying to shape an argument against the President for the general election - that Obama has failed to deliver on his campaign rhetoric to return prosperity and jobs to a slumping America.

The choice of venue Thursday - a drywall plant shuttered in June 2008 under President George W. Bush, resulting in 58 people losing their jobs - was no accident. Then candidate Obama spoke here days before Ohio's primary in March of 2008, and just months before the plant was closed.

More than 6 months out from Election Day, Ohio is already heating up as a critical battleground state - the President has visited five times since January while Romney spent several weeks criss-crossing the state before winning last month's primary. (read more)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A steady rain might have forced Mitt Romney’s speech indoors, but it didn’t dampen his message.

Speaking within sight of Bank of America Stadium, where President Obama will address his party during the Democratic National Convention here in early September, an unusually feisty Romney harshly criticized the president, using excerpts from Obama's keynote address in Denver four years ago to emphasize how his policies have failed the American people.

“We’re a trusting people, we’re a hopeful people, but we’re not dumb,” Romney said to a cheering crowd of about 200 people. “We’re not going to fall for the same lines from the same person just because it’s in a difference place.  We’re going to recognize that it’s time that we’ve learned who Barack Obama is and what he’s capable of doing, that he’s over his head and he’s swimming in the wrong direction.”

The campaign came to North Carolina, a potential swing state this fall, to highlight what it says are the differences between Obama’s hopeful rhetoric from 2008 and the harsh reality facing Americans today. At 9.9 percent, North Carolina's unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country, and the state still has upwards of 450,000 people out of work. (read more)

Hours after Rick Santorum bowed out of the Presidential race, front-runner and now presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered some strong words of support for his toughest opponent, before immediately pivoting to his upcoming general election battle against President Obama.

“He has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues he cares very deeply about and has been able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and in himself,” Romney said about Santorum while speaking at a steel plant in Wilmington, DE. “He will continue to have a major role in the Republican Party.”

Romney appeared at ease and upbeat during the event, even taking unplanned questions from the audience.  

That could be because Santorum’s exit essentially clears the path for Romney to the nomination. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul remain in the race, but neither has a viable path to attaining the 1144 delegates needed.  The Republican Party is falling into step, immediately coalescing around him. (read more)

 
Snellville, Ga. -- Mitt Romney took President Obama to task Sunday, calling his foreign policy a failure and warning that if he's reelected "Iran will have a nuclear weapon."

"This president has failed," Romney told a crowd of more than 1,200 at a pancake brunch. "It's pretty straightforward in my view -- if Barack Obama gets re-elected Iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change if that's the case. ...

"This president failed to speak out when the dissidents took the streets in Tehran," Romney continued. "This is a president who has failed to put in place crippling sanctions against Iran. He's also failed to communicate that military options are on the table and in fact in our hand."

Romney's criticisms came after Obama took a swipe at the Republican presidential hopefuls, declaring in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee -- or AIPAC -- there's been too much "loose talk" of war with Iran.

Republicans, including all four candidates running for president, remain skeptical of the Obama administration's foreign policy, saying it has allowed Iran to take steps toward nuclear proliferation. (read more)