Reporters covering Mitt Romney's campaign sent out a volley of tweets on Wednesday, complaining that they had been prevented from asking the presumptive Republican nominee questions at an event in Florida.
Trouble between the campaign and the press apparently started at the beginning of the day. Sara Murray, a Wall Street Journal reporter, tweeted that journalists had been told they would not be asking any questions of Romney. "Isn't that our decision?" a reporter asked.
Then, the press corps was told that Romney was having an off the record meeting with "middle class families." Politico's Ginger Gibson noted that they used to be able to see these meetings happen, but were now having their access cut off.
Things only deteriorated from there. A public event followed the private meeting, and campaign aides tried to physically prevent reporters from asking Romney questions at the rope line where he was greeting voters. The reporters "refused to leave," in New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro's words.
Video uploaded by CNN showed Romney aide Krista Warren saying, "We're not going to do this," holding her arms out to try preventing the reporters from getting to the rope line.
ABC's Emily Friedman said that most journalists were able to get to the rope line, "despite USSS and campaign asking us to leave and stop," but that Romney still refused to answer any questions.
Campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul later emailed Politico, saying there had been an "error" on the part of the staff.
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