WASHINGTON, July 14: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended his tenure at Bain Capital, disputing reports he lied about when he left and demanding an apology from President Barack Obama’s camp.
The Democratic incumbent’s team had seized on a Boston Globe report citing government records that appear to show Romney remained in control of the private equity firm for three years beyond 1999, when he says he stepped down.
The date could be important, as Bain Capital is alleged to have invested in firms that moved workers overseas after that year and Obama supporters are attempting to paint Romney as a destroyer of jobs.
But after Obama himself said Romney owed the American people answers, the former Massachusetts governor sounded off in a series of television interviews.
“I was the owner of the entity that was filing this information, but I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after 1999. I left in February of 1999,” Romney told CNN yesterday.
Romney told CBS News that Obama “ought to apologize for what he’s doing.”
And to ABC News, he called on the president to “rein in” his campaign team.
“The president needs to take control of these people,” Romney said. “He ought to disavow it and rein in these people who are running out of control.”
“He sure as heck ought to say that he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team,” he added.
The protracted row over Bain and whether Romney or Obama is more responsible for sending US jobs offshore has emerged as a central issue in the campaign. Both sides are using highly personal attacks as they craft narratives of their rivals aimed at undermining voters’ trust.
The Bain question flared anew after Obama spent the day in key battleground state Virginia, hammering Romney and his Republican party on its economic record.
Obama said close scrutiny of Romney’s overall record was merited because his opponent was using his business background and ability to become “Mr Fix-It on the economy,” as “his main calling card.”
During a conference call on Thursday, Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said that if the allegations were true about Romney’s end date with Bain, he had either committed a felony by “misrepresenting” his position before the Securities and Exchange Commission or lied to the American people.
Speaking on CNN, Romney said that the Obama camp’s claims were “false, misleading, wrong-headed,” and urged the president to take responsibility for and stop his camp’s “disgusting, demeaning” attacks. (AGENCIES)
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