By — Terence Burlij Terence Burlij Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-romney-tv-ad-rebuts-obama-charges-on-outsourcing Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter New Romney TV Ad Rebuts Obama Charges On Outsourcing at Bain Politics Jul 12, 2012 9:32 AM EDT Mitt Romney in Boston in 1993 as chief executive of Bain Capital. Photo by David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Mitt Romney is fighting fire with fire. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate released a new television ad Thursday taking aim at President Obama’s charges that he was responsible for outsourcing jobs during his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. The 30-second spot cites a fact-check piece from the Washington Post that labeled the president’s attacks “misleading, unfair and untrue” and another from FactCheck.org that found “no evidence” Romney shipped jobs overseas. The ad also reprises a clip of Hillary Clinton calling out then-candidate Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary for sending out mailers with false information about her positions on health care and NAFTA. “So shame on you, Barack Obama,” Clinton says in the ad. You can watch the ad here or below. The response from the Romney campaign is part of an ongoing back-and-forth between the campaigns that started in late June with the release of a Washington Post report that Bain invested in companies that specialized in outsourcing jobs. The Obama campaign seized on the story, with the president calling Romney an “outsourcing pioneer” on the stump and releasing TV ads in battleground states to drive home the point. The new ad will likely help calm some GOP nerves about Romney’s ability to deliver a counterpunch, the subject of a report Thursday by Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker in the New York Times. Part of the Romney campaign’s defense that he had no role in Bain’s outsourcing activities has been that the candidate left his role with the company in February 1999 to head up the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. But the Boston Globe’s Callum Borchers and Christopher Rowland report Thursday that based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission Romney “remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.” The Globe reporters add: Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings. The Romney campaign pushed back swiftly on the Globe story. Spokesperson Andrea Saul said in a statement: “The article is not accurate. As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point.” Mother Jones magazine added another piece to the outsourcing narrative Wednesday with an exclusive on Bain’s involvement in a Chinese manufacturing company. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Democratic attacks on Romney’s private sector experience have paid off, with 40 percent of Americans saying the Republican did more to cut jobs as a corporate investor while 36 percent said he did more to create positions. As long as those numbers continue to trend in that direction it’s a safe bet the Obama campaign will hammer away at Romney’s Bain tenure again and again. REPEALPALOOZA As the Republican majority in the House of Representatives took a stand to attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the NewsHour on Wednesday dove into various battles at the state level over the act’s Medicaid expansion plans. Gwen Ifill spoke with a trifecta of reporters — Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun, Emily Ramshaw of the Texas Tribune, and Margot Sanger-Katz from National Journal — about Republican governors’ pushback against the federal money. The governors are concerned about long-term costs for the program, Medicaid’s already tricky financial state and, of course, anti-government expansion ideology. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry says no, he won’t allow the program to expand, and the Nevada statehouse is strongly considering the same option. The final decisions won’t come until state legislatures are back in session, but the governors have taken political positioning on the topic of the summer. Not everyone’s talking, though. Ralston points out a lopsided conversation in Nevada: “More interestingly, though, Gwen, is that the liberal Democrats in this state who have agitated for years for more people on Medicaid appear to have had their vocal chords removed during this period and are not coming out with any kind of full-throated embrace of this. Why? During a campaign season, no one wants to be seen as maybe advocating for what [Gov. Brian] Sandoval said this might incur, which is a tax increase.” Watch the segment here or below. As for the House vote itself, the repeal initiative will head to the Senate, where it will almost certainly die. Freshmen congressmen like GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy seemed perplexed by the theater, Daniel Newhauser and Jonathan Strong wrote for Roll Call in a story headlined, “Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before.” “You’re voting on things in the middle of the night that you know have the same chance of becoming law as my son taking Kate Upton to the prom. Actually he may have more of a chance. It just has no chance,” Gowdy told them. They added: To underscore some of the strangeness of the day, there was even confusion about how many times the House has voted to repeal all or part of the law. GOP leaders say the number is now 33 times. Some Democrats said 31. Regardless, the ultimate result was the same. Our own Judy Woodruff took the idea of political theater one step further in her “Judy’s Notebook” column this week. “Watching the action on Capitol Hill this week raises the question of how seriously connected Washington is to the 50 states: Is it on a singular track, cut off from what “real people” are thinking?” she writes. Still, “This would hardly be the first time Washington engaged in a little symbolism: both political parties, presidents past and present and members of the House and Senate have taken turns posturing for public consumption,” she added. NewsHour reporter-producer Cassie M. Chew gathered voices about the vote from people not holding an official title. And Talking Points Memo introduces the five House Democrats who curiously voted to repeal. SPINNING THE BOOS The New York Times presented Thursday one of many roundups of Mitt Romney’s speech before the NAACP’s annual convention Wednesday in Houston with the Republican’s bold claim at the top: “If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him.” Of course, the candidate was booed by the crowd, despite his attempts to connect with his audience on frustration about the economy. Watch the speech here or below, and if you speak another language, help us translate it here. The post-boo spin has been strong enough that we considered invoking the term Boogate. (Sorry, America, please don’t boo us!) We’ve rounded up the stories that tackle the various causes and effects below: Romney in a post-event interview brushed off the incident with a comment that he had expected the jeers. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi mused that Romney wanted to get booed. And: Was there boo fixing? CNN analyst Roland Martin alleges the Romney camp bussed in supporters. 2012 LINE ITEMS The Obama campaign is again contrasting the president’s tax cut proposal against Romney’s in a new TV ad airing in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Our first thought: Whose house is that at the 5-second mark? Watch it here or below: Romney said Wednesday the president is “simply naive” for comments made to a Miami TV station earlier this week stating that the actions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over the past several years have “not had a serious national security impact” on the U.S. The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker reports on the the $30,000-a-couple fundraising dinner for Romney Thursday night being held at the Wyoming home of former Vice President Dick Cheney. This week in the veepstakes: Politico’s Alexander Burns writes the Bob McDonnell magnum opus, on how ultrasounds have killed his chances for a vice presidential bid. Democratic National Convention organizers tell the Charlotte Observer that they’re not as far behind financially as people think they are. It may not be Latinos or NASCAR Dads who decide the 2012 election, The Hotline’s Reid Wilson thinks Wal-Mart Moms may be the key demographic in 2012. WHYY’s Radio Times presents a full hour-long interview with two reporters on the hows and whys of tax havens — and a fascinating analysis of questions that lie beneath Mitt Romney’s tax returns. SEIU and Priorities USA Action have released new ads focusing on Medicare and home foreclosures. The DNC keeps up the offshore accounts push in a new video called “Mitt Romney’s $ecret $tash.” In his Roll Call column, Stu Rothenberg laments the days when conventions meant something. A new poll from Marquette Law School has the president leading Romney 51 percent to 43 percent in Wisconsin. Another survey from left-leaning Public Policy Polling found the president ahead 50 percent to 44 percent. Rick Santorum has a new gig. Actress Nia Long recorded a video for Team Obama. TOP TWEETS @charlierose interviews @BarackObama and @MichelleObama today.. Together at the White House. — Chris Licht (@ChrisLicht) July 12, 2012 RT @CNBC: Buffett: U.S. economy doing better than virtually any other economy in world, has come back a long way w the exception of housing — Betsy Fischer Martin (@BetsyMTP) July 12, 2012 Top Romney senior adviser, Vin Weber, is lobbying for Ukraine bit.ly/P29gyI — Eli Lake (@EliLake) July 12, 2012 Best thing about writing about trolls is that they are now trolling eachother about being on troll list. — Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) July 11, 2012 OUTSIDE THE LINES Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is undergoing “intensive medical treatment” for a mood disorder, his office said Wednesday evening. Congress may get involved with the Libor scandal and call former Barclays leader Bob Diamond to testify, the Guardian reports. Politico’s Jake Sherman and Matt DoBias are keeping score and find the House GOP has passed just two of its 2010 promises: an abortion bill and liability legislation. Sen. Joe Lieberman will vote against the Obama tax cut proposal. We have another version of the farm bill. The House agriculture committee shaves funds from food stamps. Jon Ralston scooped that the National Republican Senatorial Committee “has asked Secretary of State Ross Miller to confirm that Nevada law mandates Rep. Shelley Berkley must stay on the ballot even if she withdraws because of ethics problems.” The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced Wednesday it had reserved more than $2.3 million worth of television time in Nevada this fall for Berkley’s matchup against GOP Sen. Dean Heller. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson will be up against $6.2 million in attack ads reserved by American Crossroads, reports the Tampa Bay Times. In Virginia, former Sen. George Allen has a new Senate campaign ad focused on his record with welfare reform as governor in the 1990s. Allen’s Democratic rival, former Gov. Tim Kaine announced he raised $3 million in the second quarter. They don’t rebuild, they reload: Meet the next politician from the Bush family. A Portland Press Herald poll shows Maine independent Senate candidate Angus King in strong position to win the state’s open seat this November. King takes 55 percent of the vote with Republican Charlie Summers at 27 percent and Democrat Cynthia Dill at 7 percent. Former Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson raised more than $800,000 in the second quarter of the year to support his bid to return to the U.S. House. The Washington Post has news on Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s campaign finance investigation. Christina Bellantoni and Alex Bruns contributed to this report ON THE TRAIL All events are listed in Eastern Time. Vice President Biden delivers remarks at the NAACP Annual Convention in Houston at 10:30 a.m. Mitt Romney attends the fundraising dinner hosted by former Vice President Cheney in Jackson Hole, Wyo., at 8 p.m. President Obama has no public events scheduled. All future events can be found on our Political Calendar: For more political coverage, visit our politics page. Sign up here to receive the Morning Line in your inbox every morning. Questions or comments? Email Christina Bellantoni at cbellantoni-at-newshour-dot-org. Follow the politics team on Twitter: @cbellantoni, @burlij, @elizsummers, @kpolantz, @indiefilmfan, @tiffanymullon, @dePeystah, @meenaganesan and @abbruns. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Terence Burlij Terence Burlij
Mitt Romney in Boston in 1993 as chief executive of Bain Capital. Photo by David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Mitt Romney is fighting fire with fire. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate released a new television ad Thursday taking aim at President Obama’s charges that he was responsible for outsourcing jobs during his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. The 30-second spot cites a fact-check piece from the Washington Post that labeled the president’s attacks “misleading, unfair and untrue” and another from FactCheck.org that found “no evidence” Romney shipped jobs overseas. The ad also reprises a clip of Hillary Clinton calling out then-candidate Obama during the 2008 Democratic primary for sending out mailers with false information about her positions on health care and NAFTA. “So shame on you, Barack Obama,” Clinton says in the ad. You can watch the ad here or below. The response from the Romney campaign is part of an ongoing back-and-forth between the campaigns that started in late June with the release of a Washington Post report that Bain invested in companies that specialized in outsourcing jobs. The Obama campaign seized on the story, with the president calling Romney an “outsourcing pioneer” on the stump and releasing TV ads in battleground states to drive home the point. The new ad will likely help calm some GOP nerves about Romney’s ability to deliver a counterpunch, the subject of a report Thursday by Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Parker in the New York Times. Part of the Romney campaign’s defense that he had no role in Bain’s outsourcing activities has been that the candidate left his role with the company in February 1999 to head up the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. But the Boston Globe’s Callum Borchers and Christopher Rowland report Thursday that based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission Romney “remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.” The Globe reporters add: Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings. The Romney campaign pushed back swiftly on the Globe story. Spokesperson Andrea Saul said in a statement: “The article is not accurate. As Bain Capital has said, as Governor Romney has said, and as has been confirmed by independent fact checkers multiple times, Governor Romney left Bain Capital in February of 1999 to run the Olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point.” Mother Jones magazine added another piece to the outsourcing narrative Wednesday with an exclusive on Bain’s involvement in a Chinese manufacturing company. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Democratic attacks on Romney’s private sector experience have paid off, with 40 percent of Americans saying the Republican did more to cut jobs as a corporate investor while 36 percent said he did more to create positions. As long as those numbers continue to trend in that direction it’s a safe bet the Obama campaign will hammer away at Romney’s Bain tenure again and again. REPEALPALOOZA As the Republican majority in the House of Representatives took a stand to attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the NewsHour on Wednesday dove into various battles at the state level over the act’s Medicaid expansion plans. Gwen Ifill spoke with a trifecta of reporters — Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun, Emily Ramshaw of the Texas Tribune, and Margot Sanger-Katz from National Journal — about Republican governors’ pushback against the federal money. The governors are concerned about long-term costs for the program, Medicaid’s already tricky financial state and, of course, anti-government expansion ideology. In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry says no, he won’t allow the program to expand, and the Nevada statehouse is strongly considering the same option. The final decisions won’t come until state legislatures are back in session, but the governors have taken political positioning on the topic of the summer. Not everyone’s talking, though. Ralston points out a lopsided conversation in Nevada: “More interestingly, though, Gwen, is that the liberal Democrats in this state who have agitated for years for more people on Medicaid appear to have had their vocal chords removed during this period and are not coming out with any kind of full-throated embrace of this. Why? During a campaign season, no one wants to be seen as maybe advocating for what [Gov. Brian] Sandoval said this might incur, which is a tax increase.” Watch the segment here or below. As for the House vote itself, the repeal initiative will head to the Senate, where it will almost certainly die. Freshmen congressmen like GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy seemed perplexed by the theater, Daniel Newhauser and Jonathan Strong wrote for Roll Call in a story headlined, “Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One Before.” “You’re voting on things in the middle of the night that you know have the same chance of becoming law as my son taking Kate Upton to the prom. Actually he may have more of a chance. It just has no chance,” Gowdy told them. They added: To underscore some of the strangeness of the day, there was even confusion about how many times the House has voted to repeal all or part of the law. GOP leaders say the number is now 33 times. Some Democrats said 31. Regardless, the ultimate result was the same. Our own Judy Woodruff took the idea of political theater one step further in her “Judy’s Notebook” column this week. “Watching the action on Capitol Hill this week raises the question of how seriously connected Washington is to the 50 states: Is it on a singular track, cut off from what “real people” are thinking?” she writes. Still, “This would hardly be the first time Washington engaged in a little symbolism: both political parties, presidents past and present and members of the House and Senate have taken turns posturing for public consumption,” she added. NewsHour reporter-producer Cassie M. Chew gathered voices about the vote from people not holding an official title. And Talking Points Memo introduces the five House Democrats who curiously voted to repeal. SPINNING THE BOOS The New York Times presented Thursday one of many roundups of Mitt Romney’s speech before the NAACP’s annual convention Wednesday in Houston with the Republican’s bold claim at the top: “If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him.” Of course, the candidate was booed by the crowd, despite his attempts to connect with his audience on frustration about the economy. Watch the speech here or below, and if you speak another language, help us translate it here. The post-boo spin has been strong enough that we considered invoking the term Boogate. (Sorry, America, please don’t boo us!) We’ve rounded up the stories that tackle the various causes and effects below: Romney in a post-event interview brushed off the incident with a comment that he had expected the jeers. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi mused that Romney wanted to get booed. And: Was there boo fixing? CNN analyst Roland Martin alleges the Romney camp bussed in supporters. 2012 LINE ITEMS The Obama campaign is again contrasting the president’s tax cut proposal against Romney’s in a new TV ad airing in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Our first thought: Whose house is that at the 5-second mark? Watch it here or below: Romney said Wednesday the president is “simply naive” for comments made to a Miami TV station earlier this week stating that the actions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over the past several years have “not had a serious national security impact” on the U.S. The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker reports on the the $30,000-a-couple fundraising dinner for Romney Thursday night being held at the Wyoming home of former Vice President Dick Cheney. This week in the veepstakes: Politico’s Alexander Burns writes the Bob McDonnell magnum opus, on how ultrasounds have killed his chances for a vice presidential bid. Democratic National Convention organizers tell the Charlotte Observer that they’re not as far behind financially as people think they are. It may not be Latinos or NASCAR Dads who decide the 2012 election, The Hotline’s Reid Wilson thinks Wal-Mart Moms may be the key demographic in 2012. WHYY’s Radio Times presents a full hour-long interview with two reporters on the hows and whys of tax havens — and a fascinating analysis of questions that lie beneath Mitt Romney’s tax returns. SEIU and Priorities USA Action have released new ads focusing on Medicare and home foreclosures. The DNC keeps up the offshore accounts push in a new video called “Mitt Romney’s $ecret $tash.” In his Roll Call column, Stu Rothenberg laments the days when conventions meant something. A new poll from Marquette Law School has the president leading Romney 51 percent to 43 percent in Wisconsin. Another survey from left-leaning Public Policy Polling found the president ahead 50 percent to 44 percent. Rick Santorum has a new gig. Actress Nia Long recorded a video for Team Obama. TOP TWEETS @charlierose interviews @BarackObama and @MichelleObama today.. Together at the White House. — Chris Licht (@ChrisLicht) July 12, 2012 RT @CNBC: Buffett: U.S. economy doing better than virtually any other economy in world, has come back a long way w the exception of housing — Betsy Fischer Martin (@BetsyMTP) July 12, 2012 Top Romney senior adviser, Vin Weber, is lobbying for Ukraine bit.ly/P29gyI — Eli Lake (@EliLake) July 12, 2012 Best thing about writing about trolls is that they are now trolling eachother about being on troll list. — Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) July 11, 2012 OUTSIDE THE LINES Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is undergoing “intensive medical treatment” for a mood disorder, his office said Wednesday evening. Congress may get involved with the Libor scandal and call former Barclays leader Bob Diamond to testify, the Guardian reports. Politico’s Jake Sherman and Matt DoBias are keeping score and find the House GOP has passed just two of its 2010 promises: an abortion bill and liability legislation. Sen. Joe Lieberman will vote against the Obama tax cut proposal. We have another version of the farm bill. The House agriculture committee shaves funds from food stamps. Jon Ralston scooped that the National Republican Senatorial Committee “has asked Secretary of State Ross Miller to confirm that Nevada law mandates Rep. Shelley Berkley must stay on the ballot even if she withdraws because of ethics problems.” The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced Wednesday it had reserved more than $2.3 million worth of television time in Nevada this fall for Berkley’s matchup against GOP Sen. Dean Heller. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson will be up against $6.2 million in attack ads reserved by American Crossroads, reports the Tampa Bay Times. In Virginia, former Sen. George Allen has a new Senate campaign ad focused on his record with welfare reform as governor in the 1990s. Allen’s Democratic rival, former Gov. Tim Kaine announced he raised $3 million in the second quarter. They don’t rebuild, they reload: Meet the next politician from the Bush family. A Portland Press Herald poll shows Maine independent Senate candidate Angus King in strong position to win the state’s open seat this November. King takes 55 percent of the vote with Republican Charlie Summers at 27 percent and Democrat Cynthia Dill at 7 percent. Former Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson raised more than $800,000 in the second quarter of the year to support his bid to return to the U.S. House. The Washington Post has news on Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s campaign finance investigation. Christina Bellantoni and Alex Bruns contributed to this report ON THE TRAIL All events are listed in Eastern Time. Vice President Biden delivers remarks at the NAACP Annual Convention in Houston at 10:30 a.m. Mitt Romney attends the fundraising dinner hosted by former Vice President Cheney in Jackson Hole, Wyo., at 8 p.m. President Obama has no public events scheduled. All future events can be found on our Political Calendar: For more political coverage, visit our politics page. Sign up here to receive the Morning Line in your inbox every morning. Questions or comments? Email Christina Bellantoni at cbellantoni-at-newshour-dot-org. Follow the politics team on Twitter: @cbellantoni, @burlij, @elizsummers, @kpolantz, @indiefilmfan, @tiffanymullon, @dePeystah, @meenaganesan and @abbruns. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now