BILL BURTON: "Romney has no coherent answers to basic questions about how profiting from driving a company to bankruptcy qualifies him to be President."
Now we know why Romney has avoided questions from reporters. He gave an extended interview to a right wing blogger where the answers on his private sector experience ranged from misleading to irrelevant. It is clear he is unprepared to answer questions on the experiences he claims qualify him to be President.
Romney begins by claiming that he shouldn’t be held responsible for decisions he and his firm made that lead to GST Steel's collapse because he wasn’t around when the company legally collapsed due to those decisions. Romney’s attempt to avoid responsibility for his decisions is akin to someone who turns on the bathtub then claims he was outside and can’t be blamed when the house floods.
The Washington Post reported, "Romney retained full, sole ownership of the firm" at the time GST collapsed. Additionally, the New York Times reported, “when it came to his considerable personal wealth, Mr. Romney never really left Bain.”
After taking heat from conservatives and liberals over his fictional claim to have helped create 100,000 jobs, Romney stopped using the figure. Today he repeated those claims, which the Washington Post wrote, “do not pass the laugh test."
Romney then attacks the auto rescue, arguing that President Obama’s attempt to save millions of jobs in the auto industry is akin to Romney’s decision to pay himself millions from companies he drove towards bankruptcy.
It is no surprise that Romney is avoiding reporters: He has no coherent answers to basic questions about how profiting from driving a company to bankruptcy qualifies him to be President.
Listen to Romney’s interview with a conservative blog today: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/16/hot-air-interview-with-mitt-romney/
Background
Romney Profited Even Though GST Was Driven To Bankruptcy, 750 Workers Were Fired and Lost Promised Health and Retirement Benefits. According to Reuters, “Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month. What's more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.” Even though Bain only took over the company in 1993, “Bain got its money back quickly. The new company issued $125 million in bonds and paid Bain a $36.1 million dividend in 1994.” [Reuters, 1/6/12]
Washington Post: “Romney retained full, sole ownership of the firm for two more years as he worked on the Olympics.” [Washington Post, 10/21/07]
New York Times: “Yet when it came to his considerable personal wealth, Mr. Romney never really left Bain.” [New York Times, 12/18/11]
Conservatives, Liberals and the Media on Romney’s Fabricated 100,000 Jobs:
Washington Post, “Mitt Romney and 100,000 jobs: an untenable figure,” 1/10/12
Factcheck.org, “Romney’s Shaky Job Claims,”1/5/12
Daily Beast, “Romney Uses Bogus Job Numbers,”1/3/12
Politico, “The black box that is Bain,” 1/11/12
Daily Caller, “Is Romney backtracking on his 100,000 jobs created claim?” 1/17/12
Think Progress, “Romney Camp Admits That Its Bain Job Creation Number Is Bogus,” 1/4/11