Mitt Romney talks about former SEAL killed in LIbya

Speaking at a rally held at a family farm about 20 miles outside Des Moines, Romney was telling the crowd a random story about how he had once mistakenly crashed a neighbor's Christmas party near his house in La Jolla, Calif., thinking it was the neighborhood's annual holiday party. He spoke about how kind people had been to him there, even though he and his wife, Ann, had intruded. "I got to meet some really interesting people. One of them was a guy actually from my home state of Massachusetts—a relatively young guy compared to me," Romney said. The man was a former Navy SEAL living in San Diego, Romney explained without giving Doherty's name. That night, the two talked about interests they shared: They both loved to ski and had explored some of the same slopes. "We had a lot of things in common," Romney said. "He told me that he keeps going back to the Middle East. He cared very deeply about the people there. He served in the military there, went back from time to time to offer security services and so forth to people there." "You can imagine how I felt when I found out that he was one of the two former Navy SEALS killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11th," Romney continued. "And it touched me obviously that I recognized that this young man that I thought was so impressive has lost his life in the service of his fellow men and women." Citing a CNN report that Doherty had been killed while trying to help others at the consulate, Romney expressed his admiration—and likened it to the leadership he says the country needs now in Washington. "When he and his colleagues there heard that the consulate was under attack ... they went there. They didn't hunker down where they were in safety. They rushed there to go help," Romney said. "This is the American way: We go where there's trouble. We go where we're needed. And right now we're needed. Right now the American people need us."