Obama interview increases pressure on Romney over Bain Capital history

Mitt Romney faced mounting pressure over the extent of his role in Bain Capital on Friday as Barack Obama insisted that scrutiny of his Republican challenger's business record was entirely justified.

Obama stood by his campaign team amid protests by Romney that it was out of line for suggesting he was lying about his time at the private equity firm and that a criminal offence could be involved.

Obama, in an interview with CBS conducted on Thursday evening and broadcast Friday, said the scrutiny of Romney's record at Bain was "entirely appropriate".

The Obama campaign on Thursday morning held a phone conference for reporters in which they said Romney was lying to either the American public or the securities and exchange commission about the date when he left the company. They added that if it was the latter, this was potentially a criminal matter.

Matt Rhoades, the Romney campaign manager, called for an apology and described the Obama campaign team as "out of control".

Jan Psaki, a media spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, travelling with the president to Virginia on Friday, stood by the claim that Romney could be open to criminal proceedings. Asked by reporters on the plane whether Romney had committed a felon, she said his actions "raise legal questions" that might be answered by his release of more documents.

The row is over Romney's claim that he ceded control of Bain Capital, the company where he made his fortune, in 1999 when he left to run the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The Boston Globe on Thursday published filings by Bain to the securities and exchange commission listing Romney as sole owner, chief executive and president of Bain until 2002.

The issue of the timing is significant because several companies taken over by Bain between 1999 and 2002 saw lay-offs and closures, with jobs shipped to China, Mexico and other countries, dangerous charges for Romney in an election year in which unemployment is the top issue.

Bain Capital on Thursday released a statement in support of Romney, saying he had "absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm or any of its portfolio companies since his departure" in February 1999.

But, further raising questions about how much Romney remained involved, the Huffington Post reported that in testimony in June 2002 Romney claimed he regularly travelled back from Salt Lake City to Massachusetts, where Bain has its headquarters, to sit on the board of one of the companies Bain invested in, LifeLike.

Romney was giving testimony to a hearing to determine whether he met the residency requirements to enable him to stand for governor of Massachusetts in 2002.

"There were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth," he said.
He said "remained on the board of the Staples corporation and Marriott International, the LifeLike corporation" at the time.

Staples is another company that Bain invested in.

Bloomberg reported Friday that Romney, in addition to filings published by the Boston Globe on Thursday saying he was chief executive and president of the main holding company Bain Capital, is also named as one of two managing members of another Bain-related entity, Bain Capital Investors LLC, as late as 2002.

The Obama campaign team is targeting what Romney regards as his core strength, that he has the business experience to help turn the economy round.

The Obama team is trying to turn that into a negative by claiming he presided over lay-offs and outsourcing.

Obama, campaigning in the swing state of Virginia on Friday, told the Charlie Rose programme Romney's premise was that he would be a good steward of the economy because of his time at Bain.

"I think it is entirely appropriate to look at that record and see whether in fact his focus was creating jobs and he successfully did that. And when you look at the record, there are questions there that have to be asked."

Rose did not raise the contentious issue of whether Romney was in charge of Bain between 1999 and 2002 but Obama said that on Bain in general it was legitimate to purse Romney over his record. "Well, I think that when you run for president everything is called into question," Obama said.

"When some people question why I would challenge his Bain record, the point I've made there in the past is, if you're a head of a large private-equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money. It's not to create jobs. It's not even to create a successful business. It's to make sure that you're maximising returns for your investor," Obama said.

"Now, that's appropriate. That's part of the American way. That's part of the system. But that doesn't necessarily make you qualified to think about the economy as a whole, because as president, my job is to think about the workers. My job is to think about communities, where jobs have been outsourced."