LONDON — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney caused a stir in Britain on Thursday by questioning whether the country is prepared to host the Olympic Games without a hitch and scheduling a fundraiser with the former head of a troubled bank.
British Prime Minister David Cameron offered a blunt retort to Romney and other doubters, saying they will “see beyond doubt that Britain can deliver.”
The stir came on the first full day of Romney’s first international tour as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. With the U.S. still fighting one war and facing foreign-policy challenges around the globe, Romney is seeking to convince American voters that he’s prepared to serve as commander in chief, despite having limited foreign-policy experience.
He will visit three allies — England, Israel and Poland — in the coming days while appearing today at the Olympics opening ceremonies. Romney led the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City and used the games to launch his political career.
Romney openly doubted whether Britain could handle the games, saying it was unclear whether concerns that have dogged the final preparations could be overcome.
“It’s hard to know just how well it will turn out,” Romney told NBC News in an interview Wednesday, two days before today’s opening cer- emonies.
He later met with Cameron, and they discussed the Olympic Games as well as alliances in Afghanistan and Syria, among other countries.
Romney declined to answer questions about whether the West should do more to intervene in Syria.
“While I’m on foreign soil, I’m very careful not to be critical of my own government’s policies,” he said. “I would be even more remiss if I were to be critical of any other government’s policies. I will instead look forward to an exchange of ideas.”
Romney backed off his initial Olympics comment after meeting with Cameron.
“I expect the games to be highly successful,” Romney declared after the meeting.
But the British press had already pounced. News of Romney’s remarks was leading The Times of London’s website at one point, and The Guardian’s website offered up a story titled “Romney’s Olympics blunder stuns No. 10 and hands gift to Obama.”
At the same time, Romney faced scrutiny over a London fundraiser Thursday night that was expected to attract employees of Barclays, which has been in the spotlight after becoming the first bank to admit that its employees were involved in manipulating a key market index.
Last month, U.S. and British agencies fined Barclays a total of $453 million. In the wake of that shock, chief executive Bob Diamond resigned. Diamond had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser but pulled out. He already had sent Romney a check for $2,500.
Also pulling out were 82 others who listed their employer as Barclays or Barclays Capital in U.S. Federal Election Commission records, including two who gave the maximum to the Romney campaign, both in 2011 and 2012. One person gave the maximum to President Barack Obama.
Romney sought to steer the conversation away from the controversies.
“The world is a tumultuous and dangerous place,” Romney said Thursday. “And certainly in many of the regions around the world we have great interests in having a common effort in seeing greater peace and prosperity.”
As he met with British leaders past and present, the Republican also praised “the unique relationship that exists between our nations, our commitment to common values, our commitment to peace in the world and a desire to see a stronger and growing economy.”
During the public part of his meeting with Cameron, Romney weighed in again after his comment about the Olympics drew attention across Britain.
“My experience with regards to the Olympics is it is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur,” he said. “Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes.”
Meeting with British officials is typically one of the first priorities of any new president, and establishing those relationships beforehand can help smooth any transition. It’s not unusual for American presidential candidates to meet with British leaders during the campaign; Obama did so when he took a trip abroad as the likely Democratic nominee in 2008.
On Thursday, Romney also met with former Prime Minister Tony Blair; Ed Miliband, the current leader of the Labor Party — the opposition to Cameron’s Conservative Party; and Foreign Secretary William Hague. The candidate also met with Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Britain’s top financial official.
The meetings happened a day after the Daily Telegraph published a story quoting an unidentified Romney campaign adviser as saying the Republican believes that the U.S. relationship with Britain is special because of shared “Anglo-Saxon heritage” that the adviser said the White House doesn’t appreciate.
Romney, however, quickly distanced himself from any such view.
“I don’t agree with whoever that adviser might be,” Romney told NBC News, “but do agree that we have a very common bond between ourselves and Great Britain.”
Nonetheless, Vice President Joe Biden and top Obama aides criticized Romney. “The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Gov. Romney’s readiness to represent the United States on the world’s stage,” Biden said.
Accompanying Romney to some of his meetings Thursday were former Missouri U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, an adviser, and Kerry Healey, who served as lieutenant governor when Romney was governor of Massachusetts.
Three of Romney’s sons — Tagg, Josh and Craig — also joined him in London.
In the U.S. on Thursday, the White House and the Senate’s top Democrat said new gun legislation will not be on the political agenda this year. Instead, Obama intends to focus on other ways to combat gun violence — a position not unlike that of Romney.
Days after the mass shootings in Colorado, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama still supports a ban on the sale of assault weapons, a restriction that expired in 2004. But he added: “There are things we can do short of legislation and short of gun laws that can reduce violence in our society.”
Carney’s comments came the day after Obama, in a speech to a group of black people Wednesday in New Orleans, embraced some degree of additional restrictions on guns. He acknowledged that not enough has been done to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and pledged to work with lawmakers from both parties to move forward on the matter.
Carney also spoke as a prominent gun-control group called on Obama and Romney to lead a search for solutions to gun violence. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said both candidates owe voters concrete plans and appealed to them not to duck the issue.
The White House in particular has faced fresh questions since the Colorado shootings about whether Obama, a strong supporter of gun control as a senator from Illinois, would make an election-year push for stricter measures.
After last year’s killings of six people and the wounding of then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, Obama called for steps to “keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.” But he has advanced no legislative proposals since then.
In an interview Thursday with CNN, Romney said new laws won’t keep people from carrying out “terrible acts.” He cited the case of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and put to death for the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.
“How many people did he kill with fertilizer, with products that can be purchased legally anywhere in the world? He was able to carry out vast mayhem,” Romney said. “Somehow thinking that laws against the instruments of violence will make violence go away, I think is misguided.”
Information for this article was contributed by Kasie Hunt, David Stringer, Bob Barr, Julie Pace and staff members of The Associated Press; by Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times; and by Ashley Parker and Helene Cooper of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/27/2012