Romney Campaign Denies Involvement In Obama Video

Gitcho unsure of whether the speech being touted in conservative media contains anything newsworthy.

DENVER, Colo. — As conservative media buzzes about newly resurfaced footage of then-Senator Barack Obama delivering a 2007 speech in which he talks about race, the Romney campaign is denying that it had anything to with the tape’s release.

The relationship between campaign manager Matt Rhoades and Matt Drudge — whose site first started teasing the video — has been widely reported, and the Drudge Report regularly features stories and headlines meant to give Romney a boost.

But asked whether Rhoades or anyone else on the campaign was involved in leaking the tape, communications director Gail Gitcho e-mailed, “We did not have any involvement.”

The video first surfaced during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, and when Drudge began teasing it late Tuesday afternoon, BuzzFeed found an edited version of the Obama speech in question online and posted it. Reporters at The Daily Caller, now claiming ownership of the scoop, took to Twitter to tout a yet-unpublished “smoking gun.”

Caller editor Tucker Carlson also aired a portion of the video on his MSNBC program in 2007.

Asked whether the campaign considers the video’s content, which is still being sorted out, newsworthy, Gitcho responded, “What is the news? I don’t know.”