Mitt Romney’s senior adviser, Ed Gillespie, tells Newsmax.TV that he believes former President Bill Clinton was trying to do a “favor” for President Barack Obama by undercutting the president’s negative campaign attacks on Bain Capital.
“President Obama was reinforcing one of his greatest vulnerabilities which is that he’s hostile to job creators,” said Gillespie on Wednesday. “I think President Clinton was trying to do him a favor by waving him off of that line of attack. And maybe he felt he was trying to do President Obama a favor here, in trying to encourage him to embrace the current tax rates rather than have them go up in January.”
Gillespie was referring to Clinton’s apparent split with Obama over the Bush Tax cuts on Tuesday. Clinton urged Congress to extend the cuts, which would otherwise expire at the end of the year.
“President Clinton obviously speaks his mind and shares what he thinks is best policy for the economy — and in this case he’s at odds with President Obama,” Gillespie observed. “I think that’s very revealing. It’s not the first time.”
Clinton recently praised Romney’s record at Bain Capital, telling CNBC that the president is "on stronger ground" when he challenges Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts, not as a businessman at Bain.
“Obviously when President Obama and the Obama campaign were attacking Gov. Romney for his success in the private sector, President Clinton rightly noted that he . . . had a sterling reputation in the private sector economy,” Gillespie noted, adding that other Democrats have also broken ranks with the president over the attacks on Bain.
“I think he understood — as did others — that you know in trying to diminish what is one of Gov. Romney’s greatest assets in terms of how the voters see him, and how he would serve as president of the United States,” Gillespie added.
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See the full interview, Gillespie — Wisconsin Rejectected 'Big Govt Agenda'
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