Richard Grenell on Tuesday abruptly
quit his post as foreign policy spokesman for the Mitt Romney
campaign.
In a statement released to The
Washington Post, Grenell blamed the uproar over his sexual
orientation for the separation.
“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,” Grenell said.
The Romney campaign responded in a
statement: “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.”
Leading the charge against Grenell was
Bryan Fischer of the Christian conservative American Family
Association, who argued that the hire signaled support for gay
rights.
“This is a huge win for us in regard
to Mitt Romney,” Fischer cheered on his radio show, Focal Point.
“Because Mitt Romney has been forced to say, 'Look I overstepped
my bounds here. I went outside the parameters here. I went off the
reservation with this hire.' … I will flatly out guarantee you he
is not going to make this mistake again. There is no way in the
world that Mitt Romney is going to put a homosexual activist in any
position of importance in his campaign.”