President Obama’s campaign pivoted on Friday to attack Mitt Romney’s critical stance on China, aggressively challenging the GOP nominee’s claims that he would be tougher on the country than Obama.
The Obama campaign released a new TV ad that charged Romney with profiting from business practices that included outsourcing jobs to China. The ad follows
an ad from Romney on Thursday that accuses Obama of letting China “beat us.”
“He invested in firms that specialized in relocating jobs to low-wage countries like China,” claims a voiceover in the scathing ad from Obama. “Romney’s never stood up to China. All he’s done is send them our jobs.”
The ad, titled “The Cheaters,” will air in battleground states Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. Romney’s ad is also airing in Ohio, a key state in the election where the topic of losing jobs to China is a sore spot due to the tire manufacturing business in the state.
Obama, siding with the United Steelworkers, imposed a 35 percent tariff on Chinese tire makers early in his presidency as part of an effort to prevent the loss of factory jobs in states like Ohio. Romney criticized the move in his 2010 book
No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.Obama’s campaign claimed that shows Romney won’t really get tough on “unfair trade policies" as he has promised. Team Romney responded by saying the Obama team is recycling "false attacks" against the GOP nominee.
"This is a false ad that has been debunked time and again by
independent fact checkers," said Andrea Saul, Romney's spokeswoman.
"President Obama has failed to stand up to China and is now using false
attacks to cover up his failed economic record. President Obama promised
to take China 'to the mat,' but instead he has allowed China to treat
the United States like a doormat. Mitt Romney will stand up for
America's workers by protecting our intellectual property rights, making
sure China plays by the rules, and ensuring more jobs are created here
in America."
The Obama campaign also hosted a conference call on Friday to press its point on Romney.
“He has never stood up for American workers and he never will,” said former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, on the conference call. “Gov. Romney’s hypocrisy apparently knows no ends. He claims he’ll crack down on China, but I don’t think he ever will.”
Romney has promised to name China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, despite some controversy within his own party over the move.
The Senate last year passed bipartisan legislation that would impose compensating duties on imports from countries they believe have manipulated the valuation of their currencies, but Republican House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) has called it a “dangerous” move and the House has not voted on the bill.
The Treasury Department has said China does not meet the definition of a currency manipulator under its standards.
“Both publicly and privately in negotiations, both the president and the administration have repeatedly pressed China to appreciate its currency, and we’ve made some progress,” Obama’s national campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt, said on the call. “If you take a look at all Mitt Romney’s tough talk on China and compare that to his record [on China] ... I think that that is the choice on the table for Ohioans.”
—Updated at 3:53 p.m.
Most Viewed RSS Feed »
