The question over when Mitt Romney officially left Bain Capital is obscure a more substantive debate that relates to the presidential campaign.
The presumptive Republican nominee insists he never signed off on the business decisions related to outsourcing that turned the private equity firm into a political lightning rod. But neither he nor his campaign have said whether he agrees with those decisions, even if he was powerless over them when they were made. The Huffington Post asked top Romney adviser Kevin Madden this very question Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBC and received the following response:
“Those decisions were made by folks that were running the company differently. So I don’t have the details of what decision-making went into it. Oftentimes what happens with those type of decisions is that you have software companies, you have different types of companies that have to go out and have manufacturing needs, and when they go to look for companies that have manufacturing needs that they don’t have, oftentimes those are manufacturing outposts around the globe. But the most important thing that we can answer is what we’re going to do to create more jobs here in the country, and that’s where Governor Romney has a much superior plan than President Obama.”
The answer mirrors a more evasive response to a similar question that senior adviser Ed Gillespie gave Sunday on “Meet the Press.” Combined, their answers illustrate a desire to obscure details of how closely Romney was associated with some of the firm’s more controversial practices between 1999 and 2002.
In a filing dated July 21, 1999, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was listed as a “general partner” for Bain Capital Partners, a California Limited Partnership. Romney’s signature is on the document declaring that he certified “that the statements contained in this document are true and correct to my own knowledge. I declare that I am the person who is executing this instrument, which execution is my act and deed.”
Romney remained on record as one of four general partners until the state was notified of his resignation on June 17, 2003.
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul disputed these latest findings. “Mitt Romney had no involvement in management or investment decisions at Bain Capital after February 1999, as has been confirmed by Bain Capital, multiple independent fact checkers and a unanimous finding of fact by the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission,” Saul wrote The Huffington Post via email. “In 2003, Mitt Romney was Governor and working full time for the people of Massachusetts, who can also verify that he was in fact Governor at the time and was no longer working at Bain Capital.”
But even during his successful 2002 run for governor, Mitt Romney visited his supposedly former company at least once, according to a senior member of his campaign staff. The staffer recalled one such visit on the way to a campaign event, but wasn’t told why it was made. The stop lasted 15 minutes. “He had many donors and volunteers there, so I assume it was for campaign and not Bain business,” the staffer told HuffPost. “It was too fast for meetings or anything.”
The staffer’s account and the California document are among the latest evidence that suggests Romney’s involvement with Bain extended beyond February 1999, when he claims to have retired from the private equity firm. State documents, SEC filings and his own recently unearthed testimony suggest that Romney continued to do business on behalf of Bain for several years after 1999.
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