Romney slams Obama in tough new speech
08/14/12 08:16 PM ET
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Mitt Romney used a tough new campaign speech to personally
blast the Obama campaign on Tuesday, saying comments earlier in the day
from Vice President Biden are "what an angry and desperate Presidency
looks like."
"Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago," Romney said while campaigning in Ohio.
Romney was responding to Biden's suggestion that the GOP ticket's economic policies would “put y’all back in chains."
The vice president made the remark while campaigning in Virginia, during a discussion of Wall Street regulation.
"They’ve
said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and
look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the
— he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once
again write their own rules — unchain Wall Street," Biden said. "They’re
going to put y’all back in chains. He’s said he’s going to do nothing
about stopping the practice of outsourcing."
Romney repeatedly and harshly criticized Team Obama for the remarks.
"His
campaign and his surrogates have made wild and reckless accusations
that disgrace the office of the Presidency. Another outrageous charge
came a few hours ago in Virginia. And the White House sinks a little bit
lower," Romney said.
"This is an election in which we should be
talking about the path ahead, but you don't hear any answers coming from
President Obama’s re-election campaign. That’s because he's
intellectually exhausted, out of ideas, and out of energy. And so his
campaign has resorted to diversions and distractions, to demagoguing and
defaming others. This is an old game in politics; what’s different this
year is that the president is taking things to a new low."
Romney's remarks echo those of his campaign spokeswoman, who earlier in the day called Biden's remarks a "new low."
The
counter-punches mark a much tougher tone from Team Romney, who have
criticized the Obama campaign before, particularly over a controversial
ad by pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action that links Romney to a
woman's death, but never in such blunt or harsh terms.
The
commercial aired for the first time Tuesday on a television station in
Cleveland. Romney made his remarks in Chillicothe, Ohio. The Buckeye
state is one of the most important in the election. No Republican has
ever won the presidency without winning Ohio.Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Romney seemed "unhinged."
“Governor
Romney's comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange
coming at a time when he's pouring tens of millions of dollars into
negative ads that are demonstrably false," LaBolt said in a statement.
Romney
new tone could be due to the addition of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to the
ticket, which was seen as energizing the GOP campaign. And it could be
because the election is growing closer and polls show the race is
neck-and-neck.
Biden himself explained his remark later on Tuesday, saying "I think I said instead of ‘unshackled,’ ‘unchained.’"
The vice president then criticized Romney's campaign for arguing his comments were outrageous.
"If
you want to know what’s outrageous, it’s their policies and the effects
of their policies on middle class America. That’s what’s outrageous,"
Biden said.
Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter also
defended Biden's remarks, saying they "were a derivative of those
remarks, describing the devastating impact letting Wall Street write its
own rules again would have on middle-class families."
Speaking on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon, she blasted the Romney response as "faux outrage."
Asked by host Andrea Mitchell if she would say the vice president went too far, Cutter responded, "No, I'm not."
"The bottom line is we have no problem with those comments," Cutter added.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul then released a second statement criticizing the Obama campaign.
“In
case anyone was wondering just how low President Obama could go in his
campaign for reelection, we now know he’s willing to say that Governor
Romney wants to put people back in chains," Saul said. "Whether its
accusing Mitt Romney of being a felon, having been responsible for a
woman’s tragic death or now wanting to put people in chains, there’s no
question that because of the president’s failed record he’s been reduced
to a desperate campaign based on division and demonization.”
In
a statement released after her appearance on MSNBC, Cutter said the
Romney campaign's outrage was "hypocritical" given Romney's stump speech
that she said questioned the president's patriotism.
-- Amie Parnes contributed
Updated at 9:05 p.m.
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