The Democratic National Committee apologized Thursday for featuring footage of Ann Romney’s dancing show horse, which she uses in therapy for her multiple sclerosis, as part of an attack video against her husband, Mitt.
“Our use of the Romneys’ dressage horse was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse wrote in an e-mailed statement. “We were simply making a point about Gov. Romney’s failure to give straight answers on a variety of issues in this race.”
Mr. Woodhouse said the DNC would not use the horse in any future ads, although the DNC didn’t pull the existing video ads that it released Wednesday.
The videos show the horse, engaged in the riding discipline known as dressage, mockingly as a way to attack Mr. Romney for “dancing around the issue” of refusing to release some of his income-tax returns.
Mrs. Romney rides a horse as part of her therapy for multiple sclerosis. She said Thursday the video didn’t bother her.
“It makes me laugh,” Mrs. Romney said on ABC. “It’s like, ‘Really?’ You know, there’s so many people out of work right now, and there’s this guy right here that has the answers for fixing the economy, and all these attacks are going to be — they’re going to try everything. They’re going to throw spaghetti at the wall.”
