In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney said:
“I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.”
The Obama campaign and notoriously liberal “fact-check” websites such asfactcheck.org, Politifact, and the Washington Post‘s “Fact Checker” said President Obama never went on an “apology tour” and has never apologized for American actions.
However, in the first few months of the president’s term, Obama repeatedly did speak of America’s past mistakes in a series of appearances, several of which fell in foreign countries. It was also revealed in a top secret cable published in 2011 by Wikileaks that the Japanese government vetoed the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima in September 2009 and apologizing for the atomic bomb.
Here are five examples of Obama apologizing for America, first collected in 2009 by “Hannity,” which occurred in quick succession during Obama’s April 2009 tour of foreign countries and in two speeches in the United States shortly thereafter.
1. April 3, 2009: Strasbourg, France
“In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”
