Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker on Saturday said he did not know whether President Obama loves America, the latest case of a likely GOP presidential contender being asked to weigh in on controversial comments by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“You should ask the president what he thinks about America,” Walker, in Washington for a Republican Governors Association meeting, told the Associated Press.
“I’ve never asked him so I don’t know,” Walker added.
During a fundraiser for Walker in Manhattan this week, Giuliani questioned the president’s love of America, stoking a wave of political attacks from Democrats.
“I do not believe that the president loves America,” the former New York City mayor reportedly said. “He doesn’t love you and he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through the love of this country.”
The latest comments from Walker echo what he told his hometown newspaper on Friday.
“I’ve never asked the president so I don’t really know what his opinions are on that one way or another,” Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday.
Republican presidential candidates have accused the media of focusing too much on Giuliani, who doesn’t hold public office anymore.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the media firestorm was unfair, telling Florida affiliate WPBF that Democrats didn’t have to answer for every “embarrassing” remark by Vice President Joe Biden.
