Former President Clinton hammered Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his debate performance while campaigning for President Obama this week, accusing the GOP nominee of changing his positions to win votes in the general election.
"I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did. I mean I thought, I thought — wow. Here's old moderate Mitt. Where have you been, boy, I missed you all these last few years," said Clinton in Las Vegas Tuesday in a video released by the Obama campaign.
"But I was paying attention in the last two years, and it was like one of these Bain Capital deals, you know where he's the closer. So he shows up, doesn't really know much about the deals and says, tell me what I’m supposed to say to close. The problem with this deal is the deal was made by severe conservative Mitt. That was how he described himself for two whole years, until three or four days before the debate, they all got together and said, 'Hey, Mitt — this ship is sinking faster than the Titanic, but people are still frustrated about the economy they wanted fixed yesterday. So just show up with a sunny face and say I didn't say all that stuff I said the last two years. I don't have that tax plan I had for the last two years.'"
The Obama campaign showcased
Clinton's remarks in a press release sent out Wednesday, aiming to portray Romney as "dishonest" about his policy positions.
Romney aides have said Democrats' charges of dishonesty are simply an attempt to deflect
attention away from Obama's performance in the first presidential debate, widely considered lackluster, and that they were confident the
strategy would not work.
Clinton has become a powerful surrogate for Obama, campaigning recently for the president in New Hampshire, Boston and Los Angeles, in addition to Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, Romney defended his tax plan and accused the president of preferring to raise taxes in a television ad released Wednesday.
Obama's team has accused Romney of misleading the public on his tax proposal during last week's presidential debate.
"I'm not going to raise taxes on anyone, because when the economy is growing slow like this, when we're in recession, you shouldn't raise taxes on anyone. ... My plan is to bring down rates ... to get more people working," said Romney during the debate in Denver, featured in the television ad.
