Mitt Romney says the octogenarian police commissioner of a New Hampshire town who called President Obama the N-word, then stood by it, should step down. One of Romney’s several homes is located in the town, Wolfeboro, where the commissioner serves.

“The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community,” said the 2012 Republican presidential nominee in a statement to the Boston Herald. “He should apologize and resign.”

Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland was overheard at a local restaurant using the racial slur against the president. In a subsequent email to fellow members of the police commission, Copeland, 82, wrote: “I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse (sic). For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

Romney wasn’t exactly going out on a limb. At a police commission meeting Thursday in the Lake Winnipesaukee resort town, more than 100 people showed up, many of them denouncing Copeland and calling on him to resign.

State Sen. Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, told the Herald that he spoke personally to Copeland and urged him to apologize and resign.

“He can disagree with President Obama all he wants, but it’s not right whether it’s the president of the United States or any other American to be called what he was called,” said Bradley. “It’s offensive.”