Obama campaign hammers Romney over new Bain report

{mosads}The Romney campaign said Monday that the report did not contain any new information, and contended that it did not undermine in any way Romney’s assertions that he was not involved in Bain investments with firms that outsourced.

“Nothing new was presented in the article that has not already been reported,” said Romney spokeswoman Amanda Hennenberg. “In fact, the story just confirms what we already know: Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to save a troubled Utah Olympics, and was no longer involved in the management of that business or the investment decisions that occurred after that date. This is just another false attack to distract voters from President Obama’s failed economic record.”

The Obama team is hoping the report will reignite questions about Romney’s ties to the investment firm. In campaign ads and speeches, the president has accused his Republican challenger of overseeing the offshoring of American jobs during his tenure at the company. But the Romney campaign has maintained that investments in firms involved in offshoring occurred after their candidate’s time heading the company — a notion supported by many independent fact checkers.

During an interview Monday with CNBC, Romney defended his time at the company, saying he was “pretty proud of” his record there.

“I hope people understand that I was investing other people’s money for them and was compensated if we were highly successful,” Romney said. “And the returns came to groups that included charities and college endowments. Those are the people who received the greatest rewards from our successes. We were also able — I saw a report by the current partners of Bain Capital over the history of the firm, which I helped start, they made some 350 investments, 80 percent of which grew. That’s the kind of record which I’m pretty proud of.”

This story was updated at 2:30 p.m.