Hanover, N.H.
During a pre-debate event at Dartmouth’s SAE fraternity house tonight, Rick Perry’s son, Griffin Perry, delivered remarks and held a brief question-and-answer session with a few dozen students. Asked whether his father has taken steps to distance himself from Pastor Robert Jeffress’s comments that Mormonism is a “cult,” Griffin Perry replied: “Absolutely.”
“You can’t control what people who endorse you say,” Perry continued. “Mitt Romney has come out and said that he believes Jesus Christ is his savior. That makes him a Christian. That’s what Christianity is about. I don’t know if there’s any other question besides that.” The 28-year-old Griffin Perry quit his job at Deutsche bank recently, so he can volunteer full-time for his father’s campaign.
Earlier today, Mitt Romney called on Perry to “repudiate” Jeffress’s comments. “Governor Perry selected an individual to introduce him who then used religion as a basis for which he said he would endorse Governor Perry and a reason to not support me,” Romney said. “And Governor Perry then said that introduction just hit it out of the park. I just don’t believe that that kind of divisiveness based upon religion has a place in this country…. I would call upon Governor Perry to repudiate the sentiment and the remarks made by that pastor.”
