Mitt Romney got some surprising pushback from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday for his political attacks on President Obama’s open mic moment with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in which Obama said he would have more flexbility in arms negotiations after the election.
“Clearly while the president is overseas, he’s at a conference and while the president is overseas I think it’s appropriate that people not be critical of him or our country,” Boehner told NBC News after being asked about Romney’s comments that Obama was telegraphing capitulation before America’s “number one geopolitical foe.”
It’s been a longstanding — though inconsitently followed — tradition in American politics to refrain from criticizing any American president while they’re abroad, so it’s not clear Boehner had any objection to the substance of Romney’s argument.