Romney supports Obama's decision to lobby for Olympics

Romney supports Obama's decision to lobby for Olympics


Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee Mitt Romney says President Obama is doing exactly what needs to be done by flying to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago in 2016.

Romney tells ABC News that having a sitting president make a personal pitch can make an enormous difference to the 106 members of the International Olympic Committee.

Related:

"I think the people in the IOC want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country," Romney said. "Does the host country really care? Is this going to be a high priority? And nothing says that like having the presence of the leader of that country and, particularly, the case of Barack Obama."

Romney says London won the games after Tony Blair made a personal pitch and Obama should do the same.

"The real embarrassment would be for [Obama] not to go to Copenhagen and for the games to be awarded to another nation," Romney said.

Romney is in Salt Lake City Tuesday holding a fundraiser for his Political Action Committee.

E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Randall Jeppesen

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast