Gingrich, Romney, Santorum discuss Trayvon Martin

Updated: 5:44 p.m. ET

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have joined President Obama in weighing in on the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

After a rally in Shreveport, Louisiana on Friday, Romney called the murder a "terrible tragedy" that was "unnecessary, uncalled for, and inexplicable at this point."

He added that it was "entirely appropriate" for the district attorney to be looking into the matter, and to have called a grand jury investigation in the pursuit of justice.

"Our hearts go out to his family, his loved ones, his friends," Romney said. "This shouldn't have happened." He declined to comment on whether or not he felt the Justice Department should get involved.

Earlier in the day, the Romney campaign released a statement on the matter:  "What happened to Trayvon Martin is a tragedy," Romney said in the statement. "There needs to be a thorough investigation that reassures the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity." Romney ignored a question on the Martin story three days ago.

Martin, who was 17 and African-American, was unarmed when he was shot by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, nearly one month ago. Zimmerman maintains he shot the boy in self-defense after he followed Martin while he was serving on a neighborhood watch. He has not been arrested.

Gingrich discussed the situation on CNN Thursday night, where he said he believed the local district attorney was taking the right course.

"I have faith that the American system of justice and that this is why you have a balance between the police and the district attorney," he said. "The district attorney has the ability to step in and say, 'wait a minute, let's look at this again.' They're clearly doing that. The police chief himself has been suspended. And I think that Americans can recognize that while this is a tragedy -- and it is a tragedy -- that we are going to relentlessly seek justice and I think that's the right thing to do."

Gingrich was also asked Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which host Piers Morgan called "nonsense." Gingrich largely defended the law but suggested it did not apply in this case. People "should not be translating 'standing their own ground' into 'pushing somebody else,'" said Gingrich.

He added that "apparently the shooter was following the young man -- that's not a stand your own ground, that's a chase the other person into their ground." He said he expected that the law would thus not apply to this case, though he stressed he had not heard the full evidence in the case.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Gingrich hit many of the same notes about the situation. He said "there's a point in there where it ought to be some kind of signal that's pretty clear that this is a guy who found a hobby that's pretty dangerous."

"Do I think citizens ought to have the right to defend themselves if attack? Sure," he said. "The question here is was he attacked or was he the attacker and that's what the grand jury will lead to. If they decide he was the attacker I suspect they'll indict him and if they indict him their going to go to a jury trial. And I support that I think this is a case. Again if somebody breaks into your home and you're at risk you ought to have the right to defend yourself."

Santorum, like Gingrich, suggested the situation could be handled by local officials. The FBI, Justice Department and U.S. Attorney's office have said they will investigate the killing.

"I think that the local and state can do a great job here," Santorum said in Louisiana Friday, after firing at a shooting range. He added that "you already see the local community is reacting and responding and hopefully this matter will be an example of what law enforcement needs to do in a case like this."

"Stand Your Ground is not doing what this man did," Santorum said. "So, there's a difference between Stand Your Ground and doing what he did and it's a horrible case. It's chilling to hear what happened and of course the fact that law enforcement didn't immediately go after and prosecute this case is another chilling example of you know obviously horrible decisions made by people in this process."

On Friday, President Obama called the incident tragic, saying it is "it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened."

"You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Mr. Obama added.

Ron Paul's campaign has responded to an inquiry about whether Paul had a comment on the Trayvon Martin situation or on Mr. Obama's response to it. 

Sarah Boxer contributed to this report

16 Photos

Fla. teen Trayvon Martin killed by neighborhood watch volunteer

[slatep]

Where were Gingrich and Obama when two black kids doused a white kid with a flammable liquid and set him on fire and telling the burned child "This is what you deserve white boy".???!!!!!

[reality_sanity]

In the first place your victim did not die; slatep. So the charge for the offense would be different -- something along the line of assault versus murder. Secondly, I see no reports that the police in Kansas failed to prosecute the offense. Why does the President or a Presidential candidate need to consider involvement when the matter is being handled appropriately by those charged to do so.

In this case even some of Florida's Republican Legislators that voted for the Stand Your Ground law are voicing disagreement with Sanford Police and Prosecutor's assertions that self-defense can be claimed by a person that pursues the eventual victim. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have both rushed to judgement considering that there is proof of pursuit and therefore criminal conduct. There is a significant probability that pursuit occurred based on what we know now. Bus in our court system reasonable doubt about the pursuit could prevent a successful prosecution. I belief the actions of the Governor (special prosecutor and investigation by Lt Gov) and the request by Sanford's administration for DOJ assistance provides multiple sets of independent eyes to assure a complete and reasonable investigation of this issue.

[bilrobi1]

When and where please?If that happened then of course the perpetrators should face a hard justice. Were they in fact caught and brought to justice? If in fact they were then there's the difference. The police in Sanford Florida didn't address the fact that an unarmed 17y.o was shot by a man that was apparently following him. They appeared to want to sweep it under the rug.Race isn't the issue.

[slatep]

DocD2008:

The fact that the watchman outweighed the victim may actually have been a hindrance to him, because he would be less agile than the victim

[reality_sanity]

Most posters need to follow the example of President Obama and Mitt Romney NOT TO RUSH TO JUDGEMENT and allow our legal system to work. People like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum who have rushed to judgement with any position as to the legal ramifications are NOT STANDING UP for the RULE OF LAW on which this country is based. Newt and Rick like the Florida Republicans that note pursuit eliminates the self-defesne provisions of a Stand Your Ground Statute are expressing conventional legal thinking. However, inferring without clear evidence from a complete investigation that pursuit no matter how probable has in fact occurred is a rush to judgement. Let's allow the legal system time to determine the truth with a proper investigation. Considering the Republican Governor has appointed an out of county prosecutor and assigned the Lt Governor to a task force to investigate the incident and the Sanford city fathers have requested participation by the DOJ there appears to be a considerable number of independent eyes to assure all sides of this incident are properly investigated.

[reality_sanity]

I will concede that the delay in initiating and fully exercising this process was not an appropriate initial response by the authorities in Sanford.

[justamaz]

Reading the comments it seems that everyone thinks they know all the circumstances that night. Do we have to always jump to conclusions without an investigation? Where was this outrage when Brian Terry was killed and his death has been stonewalled for over a year by Eric Holder. Obama is quick to speak up when its convenient for him.

[slatep]

Gingrich admitted he did not have all the facts.

One more example of Gingrich shooting his mouth off when his brain isn't loaded.

I think the whole Martin "cause" is more political than outrage.

[natpatben]

Did you mean that Ron Paul's campaign has "not" responded?
Also, the quote from Gingrich probably should read "... attacked?" and later "they're going" instead of "their going."

[Politigal]

Just goes to show that the idiots at CBS don't know ow to proofread nor do they have proper grammar skills.

[bilrobi1]

Well I just finished reading comment about Our President weighing in on this. I read many comments that were outright racist. I read some that Our. President's involvement was motivated by the fact that the shooting victim was a person of color. So I guess conversely Gingrich,Santorum and Romney are also involved for the same reason. I didn't hear anything from Our President that mentioned race.