Openly gay American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is ripping Mitt Romney's apology following a blockbuster investigative report in The Washington Post detailing how the presumed Republican presidential nominee once aggressively bullied a classmate.
According to the Post report, which Romney doesn't dispute , the 18-year-old Mitt, annoyed that another student -- who some presumed to be gay -- had unruly bleached blond hair, led a pack of students who pinned the boy down while Mitt forcibly cut his locks.
"It's heartbreaking," Aiken, the 33-year-old pop singer and gay activist, told MSNBC's Ed Schultz on Thursday.
"It's a little frightening, as someone who has experienced being bullied for being gay all through school, through high school. It sort of gives me flashbacks and concerns me."
After the report surfaced, Romney apologized, saying that while he doesn't remember all of his prep school "pranks," if "anyone was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize."
That's not enough for many Americans, including Aiken.
" Of course, while there are people who change through life, I think his apology today was disheartening," Aiken said. "It was sort of half-assed, if you will."
The story is particularly damaging for Romney because it broke just a day after President Obama was hailed by gay rights activists for publicly backing same-sex marriage, and at a time when anti-gay bullying remains firmly in the national spotlight, particularly after the headline-grabbing case of gay Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after being bullied.
Considering the seriousness of the issue, Aiken argued that Romney's apology is simply insufficient.
"To hold someone down and cut their hair, that's bullying. That's abuse, really," Aiken said. "He's got an opportunity now to speak out...If he were in a position of power he would do something about it and we didn't hear any of that today."
