Romney Says Reporters Have It Tough

To hear Mitt Romney tell it, the reporters covering his presidential campaign are worse off than the candidate.

"We don't treat them real well," Romney told "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno during a taping Friday.

"The guys that follow us in the presidential race come in a whole group. We put them in the back of the aircraft. We feed them lousy food. We wake them up early in the morning to go to events ... we don't give them chairs to sit on, either. So they have a tough go of it, but they're doing their job."

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is seeking the GOP nomination, had a run-in Thursday with Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson in Columbia, S.C. Romney's assertion that lobbyists don't run his campaign drew a sharp response from Johnson, who pointed out that a lobbyist was a prominent adviser. Video of the testy exchange that followed has played prominently online and on news networks.

On Friday, Leno asked Romney: "Have you ever lost your cool? Have you ever just exploded at a guy?"

"Absolutely, but not a reporter. That's sort of the end of the campaign when that happens," said Romney, a father of five boys. "Sometimes the kids push me to the edge, but I learned not to lose my cool with the kids."

Romney said reporters have a responsibility to be adversarial.

"These guys have a tough job to do. I respect the fact they've got to ask me tough questions and get in my face, but if I don't agree, I'm going to come back hard as well," he said. "That's just the nature of the way it ought to be."