Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 07:42 pm
President Obama is putting more pressure on Mitt Romney as he is demanding that the Republican nominee answer questions about Bain and take responsibility for his company.
Here is the video from WJLA:
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SCOTT THUMAN: What about Bain Capital? It’s a big issue for the past 24 hours right now. Mitt Romney’s campaign says he left in ’99, yours says it’s 2000, there’s a significant difference, is he being dishonest with the American public?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, here’s what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it’s pretty clear to me that I’m responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you.
Now, my understanding is the Mr. Romney attested to the SEC, multiple times, that he was the chairman, CEO and president of Bain Capital and I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does.
Ultimately Mr. Romney, I think, is going to have to answer those questions, uh because if he aspires to being president one of the things you learn is, you are ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations, but again that’s probably a question that he’s going to have to answer and I think that’s a legitimate part of the campaign.
SCOTT THUMAN: And you think he should answer that soon?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Yeah, absolutely.
The Romney people were so worried about the impact that these recent Bain revelations are having that they sent their candidate out for five different underwhelming television interviews. The interviews themselves were nothing more than a repetition of a denial that he was really in charge, and negative attacks against President Obama.
What’s was missing in the Romney interviews was any actual evidence that he wasn’t in charge. Voters can see the SEC forms that state Romney was in charge when he says that he wasn’t, so where is the proof that he wasn’t in charge? The Romney campaign hasn’t provided it. The candidate hasn’t offered it. Where is it?
This issue is not going away, and Romney might have dug himself in deeper with his on camera denials. If the Obama campaign has more proof that Romney was still running his company from 1999-2002, the GOP nominee will be ruined.
Obama is defining Romney. The Republican nominee is a puppet on the president’s strings. Obama is setting the agenda. The president is dictating the news cycle, and he is successfully defining Mitt Romney. The president wouldn’t have demanded that Romney answer questions about Bain if he didn’t already know where this is going.
This is only phase one of the Obama campaign’s information roll out on Romney, and they have already deeply wounded the Republican nominee. Romney still hasn’t come up with a clear answer about his investments, company, and tax returns.
If the president heard Romney’s answers tonight, he like the American people probably wasn’t very impressed or satisfied.
Obama is pressing his Bain advantage, and Mitt Romney is beginning to crumble.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
