Senior POLITICO Reporter Suspended Over Racial Comments About Mitt Romney on MSNBC

POLITICO announced Friday morning it has suspended its senior White House correspondent following some racist remarks he made about GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney while appearing on MSNBC's "Bashir Live" Thursday afternoon, saying he is only comfortable around other "white folks" who are like him, like the cast of "Fox and Friends" apparently.

Here's what POLITICO's Joe Williams said to Martin Bashir on Thursday:

It's very interesting that he does so many appearances on Fox & Friends and it's unscripted. It's the only time they let Mitt off the leash, so to speak. But it also points out a larger problem he’s got to solve if he wants to be successful come this fall: Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. That’s one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in some town hall settings, why he can’t relate to people other than that. But when he comes on Fox & Friends, they’re like him. They’re white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company.

"Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams's public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility," POLITICO's founding editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei wrote in a staff memo, published on its website. "His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way."

"Following discussion of this matter with editors, Joe has been suspended while we review the matter," they continued. The founders also said POLITICO journalists have an "inflexible responsibility to cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias."

Williams has reportedly declined to comment on his remarks.

POLITICO points out that the Washington Free Beacon was the first to post the video of Willams' comments.

Watch Williams' racially-charged comments here:

Breitbart.com points out that Williams' statements on Thursday are hardly out of the ordinary for the White House correspondent. They were able to capture images of a series of his tweets in which he mocks Romney for his wealth, calls NASCAR racist and even makes a penis joke involving Ann Romney:

Though Williams eventually ended up getting suspended, this type of rhetoric is common among several political pundits when referring to Romney. They regularly depict him as a rich, out-of-touch white guy who can't relate to regular people.

Surely everyone remembers earlier this week when NBC was caught selectively editing a clip of Mitt Romney when he was talking about a trip to a Wawa's convenience store. The clip was aired on Andrea Mitchell's MSNBC show. She never apologized, but later played part of  the video she left out that helped give context.

To quote Mitchell herself, "It's amazing."