Romney camp denies candidate canceled event because of ‘exhaustion'

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.—A top adviser to Mitt Romney is pushing back on an Orlando Sentinel report that the presumptive Republican nominee canceled an event there today because of "exhaustion."

Romney had been set to hold an economic roundtable there as part of his day-long bus tour through the state. But the Romney campaign canceled that event last night, choosing instead to stick with rallies here and in Miami later today.

The paper cited an unnamed campaign official saying Romney was exhausted after 48 hours of intense campaigning with his new running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. But Romney adviser Kevin Madden called that report "not accurate."

"The governor has a packed day, schedule wise," Madden told Yahoo News.

But it's hard to imagine Romney isn't a little tired. The GOP candidate arrived at his hotel in St. Augustine around 1am early Monday morning, after an 18-hour day of rallies in North Carolina and Wisconsin.

His first event here, originally scheduled to begin at 8:45am, started a half hour late—in part, aides said, because the campaign sought to accommodate hundreds of people who were caught up in long security lines entering the event.