Romney reopens Israel fundraiser to reporters

Mitt Romney visits the Western Wall on Sunday, July 29 in Jerusalem's old city, Israel.

/ Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

(CBS News) JERUSALEM -- Reversing itself in the face of complaints, Mitt Romney's campaign said on Sunday it will permit the news media to cover a Jerusalem fundraiser that caps the presumed Republican presidential nominee's trip to Israel.

After Romney clinched the GOP nomination in April, he struck an agreement with news organizations and began opening fundraising events held in all public venues to a pool of wire service, print and television reporters. The Jerusalem event is being held on Monday at the King David Hotel.

Campaign spokesman Rick Gorka had initially said that the fundraiser was "closed press," but subsequently said the campaign decided to proceed under the normal arrangement.

That decision came after complaints from the media and criticism from the Obama campaign -- two things that the Republican's aides apparently feared would overshadow the event. In response to the original decision, senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod tweeted, "After London debacle, Romney team re-institutes Mittness Protection Program. Now media will be barred from his Jerusalem fundraiser."

(Romney tells CBS News he supports Israel's defense against a nuclear Iran.)

Romney has delivered different messages to his donors when reporters are not on hand. At a closed-press fundraiser in Florida this spring, reporters from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal overheard him outline new tax policy proposals and suggest that he might dramatically shrink the Department of Education and eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Some Jewish-American donors are attending the Jerusalem fundraiser, including Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

[RollotheNorman]

Interesting. It wasn't that long ago that foreign money was illegal in US campaigns.Remember all the RepubliCON strom und drang about Gore's visit to the Buddhist? Now thanks to the right wing justices on the SCOTUS, it very much legal for those same RepubliCONs to solicit bribes overseas.

[Kestrel88]

Please, Lord, glue Mitt's lips shut until he leaves this volatile part of the world.