Mitt Romney's son goes birther ... to defend dad's refusal to release tax returns

Watch the video of Matt Romney's birther comments
 

Watch the video of Matt Romney's birther comments
 

Taking questions in Concord, New Hampshire, Mitt Romney's son says that his father won't release his income tax returns until President Obama releases his birth certificate, even though the president has already done just that:

Matt Romney: He has not said that he will not do it, he has also not said that he will. I think it's a matter of time until that issue comes up because I think everybody has to get a chance to do that. And so I don't know the answer to that, I'm not sure if he knows the answer to that. But he'll everything that he needs to. He's certainly not afraid of anything, not hiding anything -- you know, I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things then maybe he'd do it. That was just a --

Tagg Romney: That was not my dad saying that.

Matt: No, no, no, that was just a suggestion.

I'm sure the Romney campaign will claim Matt was joking, but if you watch the video, it looks like anything but a joke. And even if it had been a joke, it wouldn't have made any sense; President Obama has already released his birth certificate. By Matt's logic, his dad's tax returns would already be public.

More likely what was going on was that Mitt Romney's son knows his father needs support from the Republican base to win the nomination. And since birtherism runs strong among Republicans, Matt was saying whatever he thought the crowd wanted to hear. Like father, like son.