Cutter: Obama Campaign Never Claimed 'Bain Was Bad'

President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter continues to insist that the Obama campaign was not making an argument that “Bain [Capital] was bad,” even though a pro-Obama super PAC essentially accused Mitt Romney of being responsible for a woman’s death.

Cutter herself called Romney a felon and a liar in regards to his claims about when he left the company.

Speaking at the progressive RootsCamp 2012 conference, Cutter said the Obama campaign was simply “making an argument that” Romney’s business “experience does not qualify you to be president of the United States or to understand the real economy.”

“We obviously worked hard to tear that down, and they never built it back up,” Cutter said. “I never understood why.”

During the campaign, Priorities USA, a pro-Obama super PAC, ran commercials featuring Joe Soptic, a former steel worker who’s employer had been shuttered by Bain Capital. Soptic blamed his wife’s death from cancer on losing his health insurance when Bain closed the plant. 

Because super PACs and campaigns are forbidden to coordinate, Cutter denied any connection between the story and the Obama campaign, even though she had hosted a conference call in which she thanked Soptic for sharing his claims with reporters. 

Cutter also accused Romney of committing a felony during the presidential campaign by “misrepresenting” his position at Bain regarding when he actually left the company: 

Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony, or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.

The Romney campaign inexplicably never pushed back or preemptively highlighted positive aspects of Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital during the campaign, which puzzled even Cutter. 

“I never understood why they never pushed back on our attacks on his business experience,” Cutter said.