Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus laughed off criticism of Mitt Romney’s joke over President Obama’s birth certificate, calling for more levity in politics.
At a campaign event in Romney’s home state of Michigan on Friday, the presumptive Republican nominee made a crack to the crowd’s delight. “No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate,” he said. “They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."
Democrats have since pounced on the comments, lambasting Romney for pandering to “birther” members of the Republican Party, a fringe element who questions whether President Obama was born in the United States. On Sunday, Priebus dismissed those attacks and said it was a “nothing” issue.
“Have we gotten to a place in politics that is ridiculous and no one can say anything that is remotely humorous?” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. “The president makes jokes about this all of the time.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also dismissed the uproar: "Nobody seems to have a sense of humor anymore," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.
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