Ron Paul Defends Mitt Romney Over Jeffress’ Mormon Comments

Ron Paul Defends Mitt Romney Over Jeffress' Mormon Comments
The State Column | Staff | Saturday, October 08, 2011

In the wake of Texas Governor and GOP candidate Rick Perry's fall from the top of the GOP polls, former Massachusetts Governor and GOP candidate Mitt Romney has reclaimed his title of GOP frontrunner. In fact, Romney earned first place with 23 percent of the votes in a recent Fox News poll. Perry slipped to second place with 19 percent of the votes.

While being the frontrunner is great for one's campaign it can also draw a lot of unwanted criticism from other candidates or public figures. This was the case when Robert Jeffress, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, criticized Romney for his Mormon background. As quoted in Fox News, Jeffress referred to Mormonism as a "cult" when speaking with reporters at the Values Voters Summit on Friday. Jeffress introduced Perry at the event.

Texas Congressman and GOP candidate Ron Paul came to Romney's defense over Jeffress' comments about Mormonism. Speaking to Fox News, Paul argued that Jeffress' remark was "unnecessary." Paul went one step further and argued that negative campaigning shouldn't be the focus of the GOP race. "This whole idea that the most important thing between two candidates right now is the definition of cult, trying to make it sound negative for one person to get the edge over the other -- and they are encouraged by others to keep this thing going," Paul professed.

Paul also suggested that whether Mormonism is a "cult" or not isn't the issue that voters care about in the GOP race. "I think liberty is the issue of the day. Our Constitution is the issue of the day. And too much government -- that is the issue of the day. It's not the definition of a cult."

The latest IBOPE Zogby interactive poll of likely Republican primary voters should concern Romney and Perry more than the definition of a "cult." According to the Zogby poll, pizza magnate and GOP candidate Herman Cain leads the GOP field with 38 percent of the votes. Romney, his closest competitor, is 20 percentage points behind Cain.

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