Not every Republican pundit wants the head of Eric Fehrnstrom, the senior Romney adviser who kicked off a week of missteps for the campaign with the botched MSNBC interview in which he said the former Massachusetts governor doesn’t think the individual mandate is a tax.
Former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee, in a Saturday appearance on “Fox & Friends” said it “speaks well” of Mitt Romney to keep Mr. Fehrnstrom aboard the campaign.
“It wasn’t Eric Fehrnstrom’s best moment,” the former Arkansas governor said, but he said Mr. Romney needs people he can trust. “Eric Fehrnstrom is a loyal member of his team — he’s not going to get rid of him, and he shouldn’t.”
Mr. Romney on Wednesday contradicted Mr. Fehrnstrom, telling CBS News that he did, in fact, consider the individual mandate a tax.
Key conservative strategists and pundits have called for Mr. Romney to fire the longtime aide, who created problems for the campaign in March with another controversial comment.
Talking about the difference between a primary campaign and the general election, Mr. Fehrnstrom said: “Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”
