Mitt Romney spokesman who swore at reporters is ‘taking some time off,’ according to report

By Callum Borchers, Globe Correspondent

Mitt Romney’s campaign has made a pair of roster moves, according to reports, hiring a former top aide to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to blunt attacks on the candidate’s business record and giving “some time off the trail” to the spokesman who cussed out reporters in Poland on Tuesday.

BuzzFeed reported late Wednesday that Michele Davis, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for public affairs and director of policy planning under President George W. Bush, will join the campaign to help Romney bolster voters’ perceptions of his career in the private sector.

President Obama’s campaign argues Romney’s work at the private equity firm Bain Capital was dedicated solely to returning profits to investors and that it did not prepare him to turn around the economy, as Romney claims.

Davis is a partner at the Brunswick Group, a Washington public relations firm. Before moving to the Treasury, she was vice president for regulatory policy at the troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, which the government took over in 2008.

ABC News reported Thursday that Rick Gorka, who told reporters shouting questions at Romney to “kiss my [expletive]” and to “shove it” at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, is not with the Republican challenger in Colorado, where he is campaigning.

ABC cited an unnamed Romney aide, who said Gorka is “taking some time off the trail.”

Gorka’s time off comes after a whirlwind six-day, three-nation trip.

The Romney camp would not confirm or deny either moves to the Globe.