Priorities USA Action, the pro-Obama super-PAC, unveiled a new ad Sunday targeting presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney on his tenure as head of Bain Capital.
In the new video, a former steelworker, Donnie Box stands in front of a pad-locked factory and charges Romney and the private equity giant of closing the plant and costing hundreds of Americans their jobs.
“Romney and Bain Capital shut this place down,” Box says in the ad. “They shut down entire livelihoods. They promised us healthcare packages, they promised to maintain our retirement program, and those are the first two things that disappeared.”
This was a booming place and Mitt Romney and Bain Capital turned it into a junkyard, just making money and leaving. They don’t live in this neighborhood, they don’t live in this part of the world,” he adds.
Despite reservations from some Democrats including former President Bill Clinton and Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker about the campaign’s decision to target Romney’s private equity work, the Obama campaign and surrogates have said they have no intention of dropping the attacks and believe the issue resonates with voters.
Earlier in June, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said they intended to continue slamming Romney’s record in business, arguing that he personally profited from shuttering businesses and firing workers.
Earlier Priorities USA ads have also hit Romney for closing the GST steel plant in Kansas City, Mo. and a paper company plant owned by AmPad in Marion, Ind.
Romney’s campaign called the latest ad “another misleading attack from President Obama’s allies.”
“President Obama thinks the economy is ‘doing fine,’ in spite of the fact that 23 million Americans are struggling for work, incomes have fallen and America is drowning in debt,” said Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul in a statement.
“President Obama’s own supporters – even former President Clinton – have criticized these distorted attacks on free enterprise, calling them ‘nauseating’ and ‘unfair.’ Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has the record and pro-growth plan to fix the economy and get our country back on the right track.”
