CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan said Thursday that despite bad publicity in the media, the message Mitt Romney took abroad on his recent European trip resonates with South Carolina voters.
“I don’t think he made any faux pas in Europe on his trip and was happy to see he showed some strength and resolve on some of the critical issues with Iran and Israel and what’s going on in the Middle East,” Duncan said during a conference call from Washington on a range of issues with South Carolina reporters.
Romney’s comments on London’s preparations for the Olympics drew heated comment from the British media, the British prime minister and London’s mayor. In Israel, in a speech to mostly American Jewish donors, Romney implied that Israel was more advanced than the Palestinians because of cultural superiority. And he called Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state.
“The media has reported a lot of missteps he made in Europe, but from what I’ve seen he told Israel we stood with you before, we stand with you today and we will stand with you tomorrow,” said Duncan, a Republican who represents the 3rd District along the western edge of the state. “That resonates well in evangelical South Carolina because we do stand by Israel.”
Duncan added that “what he said in England was right on. He had managed the Olympics before and that’s a good question: Is London and England ready for this?” Romney managed the Olympic games in Salt Lake City.
Duncan said that Republican voters will turn out for Romney in November, even though they voted for Newt Gingrich in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary earlier this year. That broke South Carolina’s string of always picking the eventual GOP nominee in its primary.
Romney’s position on the Middle East “plays well here in South Carolina, and folks in South Carolina will gravitate toward him,” Duncan said.
