Romney Unsure About Policy On Coverage Of Casualty Coffins
During a Veterans Day appearance in Manchester, N.H., Mitt Romney recalled the day he received a call that a Massachusetts serviceman had been killed overseas. As governor, Romney attended more than 40 funerals or wakes of fallen servicemen, according to campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, but this particular day provided an especially poignant moment.
Romney remembered standing on the tarmac at Logan Airport with National Guard leaders and family members, as the coffin came out of the baggage compartment of a US Airways jet.
"I put my hand on my heart as did the military officers who stood with a salute," Romney said. "And as I choked back my emotions, I happened to look back into the airport terminal there at US Air and against all the windows there, the people that had come off that flight and others had stopped and they too had their hands on their hearts."
This morning in Sioux City, Iowa, CBS News asked Romney whether, as president, he would move to lift the ban on media coverage of casualty transfers at U.S. military bases.
"You know, I haven't been told the reasons for that policy — I've never really considered that policy," Romney said.
He then offered a more personal response.
"I don't see any particular reason to have that policy, but I haven't really heard both sides of it. I tend to want to hear both sides before I make a policy pronouncement so I'm probably going to have to take a look at that. But I certainly didn't object to the fact that people there at the airport terminal for instance could have taken a picture. I don't find that offensive."