WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney apologized on Thursday for what he called high school pranks that may have hurt others, after a report that he and other students at a Michigan school bullied a student who was presumed to be gay.
"I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended ... obviously, I apologize," Romney said in response to a Washington Post story that detailed a 1965 incident in which Romney pinned down a fellow student and cut his hair.
The report about Romney's days as a prep school student whose pranks sometimes crossed the line into meanness toward presumed gay classmates came a day after Democratic President Barack Obama declared that he now supports same-sex marriages.
Romney and other Republicans made clear they would seek to contrast their opposition to gay marriage with Obama's stance. But that message was overrun by the Post's report, forcing Romney to try to counter the notion that he was an intolerant bully as a youth.
"I participated in a lot of high jinks and pranks during high school, and some might have gone too far," Romney said.