Mitt Romney discussed the attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, while speaking in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — The deadly attack on Americans in Libya fueled a harsh escalation of the presidential campaign in the United States on Wednesday as Mitt Romney assailed President Obama’s handling of the situation, while Democrats accused Mr. Romney, the Republican nominee, of politicizing an international crisis.
A back-and-forth between the Romney and Obama campaigns over attacks in Libya and Egypt represented a rare partisan exchange over a foreign policy crisis and underscored the intensity and stakes of the campaign with less than two months until Election Day. The crisis has also rapidly emerged as a test of Mr. Romney’s handling of a fast-breaking international situation.
The news of the deaths of J. Christopher Stevens, the ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans emerged on Wednesday after violence spilled over the American Consulate in Benghazi and demonstrators stormed the American Embassy in Cairo.
After expressing sorrow about the deaths, Mr. Romney told reporters on the campaign trail that the Obama administration had tried to appease Islamic extremists who should have been condemned instead. He said a statement issued by the American Embassy in Cairo before the deaths criticizing an anti-Islamic video was “akin to an apology” and a “severe miscalculation.”
“The first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation, and apology for American values is never the right course,” Mr. Romney said, speaking at a campaign stop in Jacksonville, Fla. He added, “They clearly sent mixed messages to the world.”
The comments echoed a statement that the Republican nominee released on Tuesday. Mr. Romney had pledged not to criticize Mr. Obama on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but by Tuesday evening, his campaign reversed course, releasing early a statement that had been embargoed until midnight that criticized the president’s handling of violence at the American posts.
“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi,” Mr. Romney said in a statement that went out just before 10:30 p.m. “It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
He was referring to the embassy statement condemning an American-made Web film denouncing Islam that was the catalyst for the violence. However, the embassy’s statement was released in an effort to head off the violence, not after the attacks, as Mr. Romney’s statement implied. (Though the embassy staff in Cairo later said on Twitter that its original statement “still stands” — a message it then tried to delete — the Obama administration disavowed the embassy’s statement.)
Mr. Romney’s statement, which also came out before news that Mr. Stevens had been killed in the attacks, quickly came under fire from Democrats, who accused him of politicizing the violence in the Middle East at a particularly delicate time.
“We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack,” Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in an e-mail statement.
In his official statement issued from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Mr. Obama condemned “this outrageous and shocking attack” and did not directly respond to Mr. Romney’s criticism or take questions from reporters.
“Make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people,” he said as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stood by his side.
But Mr. Obama implicitly rebutted the notion that his administration had apologized for American values.
“We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” he said. “But there is absolutely no justification to this kind of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal attacks.”
The recent events, combined with a diplomatic dispute between the Obama administration and Israel, have injected foreign policy into a presidential campaign that had been largely focused on domestic issues.
In stark contrast to Mr. Romney, several Republican leaders did not join the criticism of the Obama administration.
“Today we are reminded that brave Americans serve us every day at the risk of their own lives,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chamber’s Republican leader. “We honor the Americans we lost in Libya, and we will stand united in our response.”
The House speaker, John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, ordered flags over the Capitol to be flown at half-staff.
“We mourn for the families of our countrymen in Benghazi, and condemn this horrific attack,” he said. “Eleven years after September 11, this is a jolting reminder that freedom remains under siege by forces around the globe who relish violence over free expressions and terror over democracy.”
In his remarks Wednesday, Mr. Obama also offered praise for the Libyan government, noting that Libyan security officers fought back against the mob, helped protect American diplomats and took Mr. Stevens’s body to the hospital. “This attack will not break the bonds between the United States and Libya,” he said.
He added a personal testimony to Mr. Stevens. “It’s especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi, because it is a city he helped to save,” Mr. Obama said, recalling how Mr. Stevens headed the American post in that city during last year’s revolution and worked with rebels. “He was a role model to all who worked with him and to the young diplomats who aspired to walk in his footsteps,” Mr. Obama said.
After the statement, Mr. Obama visited the State Department with Mrs. Clinton to offer condolences to Foreign Service officers.
The turmoil in the Middle East brought back into focus Mr. Obama’s rocky relationship with leaders of Israel, his so-far-unsuccessful efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program and his handling of the popular uprisings that have upended the Arab world. But in an unusual twist, it also trained a spotlight on Mr. Romney’s response and what it says about his approach to foreign policy.
Mr. Romney on Wednesday criticized Mr. Obama for not planning to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month. Asked by a supporter on the rope line of his campaign event for his views of Israel, Mr. Romney was overheard via a boom microphone saying: “I stand strong with our allies. I can’t ever imagine if the prime minister of Israel asked to meet with me, I can’t imagine ever saying no. They’re our friends. They’re our closest allies in the Middle East.”
Mr. Obama is not meeting one on one with any foreign leaders during an abbreviated visit to the United Nations because of the press of his campaign schedule. After Israelis complained on Tuesday, Mr. Obama called Mr. Netanyahu that night to smooth over the situation and they talked for an hour.
The unexpected developments of the past 24 hours came just as Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney were starting their postconvention fall sprint to Election Day and forced international affairs back into a discussion that has centered largely on the economy and domestic issues. Neither campaign wants to focus on the outside world at a time when 23 million Americans are out of work or underemployed, and while national security has been a strength for Mr. Obama in polls, neither campaign can be sure of how unpredictable overseas events will play with a domestic audience.
Ashley Parker and Jonathan Weisman contributed reporting.
