Obama Says No Apology to Romney Over Bain Attacks
Mitt Romney’s campaign said Sunday that President Barack Obama is willing to say anything to win a second term and should say he’s sorry for attacks on the Republican’s successful career at a private equity firm. “No, we will not apologize,” the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility.
Questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the Boston-based firm shipped jobs overseas. Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.
Romney’s advisers, trying to explain the discrepancies between Romney’s account and federal documents, offered fresh explanations to shift the campaign back to more comfortable ground.
“He actually retired retroactively at that point,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said. “He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.”
A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on Security and Exchange Commission documents as he sought to transfer the company’s leadership to partners.
“The reason that there is a document that had … his signature is because, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 … there was a duty to sign those documents,” Madden said.