On Friday morning, Poynter reports that Politico has suspended its veteran White House correspondent Joe Williams for racially-tinged remarks he made on Martin Bashir‘s MSNBC program Thursday afternoon. Williams’ “comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way,” Politico editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei wrote in a memo to Politico staff yesterday.

The remarks in question where said in response to a discussion on presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s seeming inability to connect with minority voters. Williams said:

“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.”