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Richard Grenell: Not Forced Out of Romney Campaign

Richard Grenell: Not Forced Out of Romney Campaign

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Grenell says the messenger had become the message.

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Former Mitt Romney campaign aide Richard Grenell denies he was forced out because of hostility to him as a gay man.

In an interview with The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, Calif., where he and his partner have just bought a home, Grenell says he resigned as Romney's national security spokesman after just two weeks because discussion of him being gay had overshadowed his work.

"I resigned because I'm very passionate about foreign policy and national security issues," he tells the paper. "When the messenger becomes part of the message -- if you really care about these issues -- you should step aside."

Many social conservatives had objected to the Republican presidential candidate's hiring of an openly gay man. Grenell acknowledges he received criticism from right-wingers, but says it came from liberals as well.

"The far left doesn't want a gay person to be conservative and the far right doesn't want a conservative to be gay," he says. "Some of the most hateful, mean-spirited intolerant comments about me being the foreign policy and national security spokesman for Governor Romney ... were coming from the left."

Grenell also says he will continue to support Romney even though President Obama has come out for marriage equality. "I think I am like most Americans in that we're multidimensional," he tells the Sun. "We have varied views and we don't fit comfortably in a one-dimensional box that either the news media or some extremists on the left or the right want to put us in."

Read the full interview here.

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.