Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-MT). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) stepped into a touchy subject with his comment that Mitt Romney’s family came from a “polygamy commune.”
On Thursday in a interview with the Daily Beast, the outspoken governor suggested Romney could identify with Latinos better if he talked about his family’s roots in Mexico.
It’s “kinda ironic, given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy,” Schweitzer said.
” Women, he said, are “not great fans of polygamy, 86 percent were not great fans of polygamy. I am not alleging by any stretch that Romney is a polygamist and approves of [the] polygamy lifestyle, but his father was born into [a] polygamy commune in Mexico.”
Ben Jacobs, The Daily Beast explains: Romney’s father, George—who served as governor of Michigan and was a member of the Nixon cabinet and also a presidential candidate—was born in Mexico in 1907 to a family of American Mormons who fled to Mexico when the United States government cracked down on the practice of polygamy. George Romney’s parents were in a monogamous marriage, but Mexico was the last bastion for the practice of plural marriage in the Church of Latter Day Saints. (The church has since expressly prohibited the practice.)
Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith denounced Schweitzer’s words. “Attacking a candidate’s religion is out of bounds, and our campaign will not engage in it, and we don’t think others should either.”
While the Obama campaign has ruled Romney’s faith off-limits, it was the subject of some attacks from evangelicals during the GOP primary.
Romney’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Schweitzer’s remarks.
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