Romney Interview Demand: Don't Ask Me About Akin

Mitt Romney's campaign told a Denver TV reporter in advance she could ask him no questions about Todd Akin or abortion, she said Thursday.

Shaun Boyd of KCNC told Talking Points Memo that the Romney campaign offered her station a satellite interview with Romney, one of several local news hits in swing states like Colorado. But a campaign staffer whose name she didn't reveal told her what questions she wasn't allowed to ask.

They said, you know, 'The only stipulation is we don't want you talking about the Akin issue,' Boyd said. She also said the staffer told her the campaign didn't want questions for Romney about the whole abortion controversy.

Boyd resisted at first.

I said to them, 'Look, everybody's talking about this. It's going to seem awkward if I don't ask about it,' she said. And they said, 'Well, he's said all he's going to say about it. He doesn't have anything more to say; you won't be getting any new information, so we don't want to talk about that.'

It was pretty clear: 'Here's our one stipulation,' Boyd recalled.

I wanted to get the interview with him, because I have other issues I want to talk to him about, she said. So the fact that he doesn't want to talk about this says something in and of itself. In some ways, this speaks for itself even without asking the question.

The Romney campaign said demanding stipulations for interviews is not how we operate. The matter is being addressed.