The Obama campaign brought out its enforcer, former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to dive into the middle of the current squabbles over Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital and his tax returns.
Appearing this morning on ABC’s This Week, Emanuel advised Romney to “give it up” on demanding an apology from the Obama camp over suggestions made by adviser Stephanie Cutter that the former Massachusetts governor could have committed a felony by signing papers as Bain Capital CEO if he was no longer with the company as claimed.
“What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something to you or Putin says something to you? Going to whine it away?” Emanuel said. “…And as Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues, stop whining. I give him his own advice. Stop whining.”
Emanuel also suggested that something in Romney’s tax returns made Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pass Romney over for the VP nod four years ago.
“To the McCain campaign, he released 23 years. And he’s telling the American people, I’m not going to give you what I’ve given John McCain’s people in 2008. And when he gave them 23 years, John McCain’s people looked at it and said, ‘Let’s go with Sarah Palin.’ So whatever’s in there is far worse than just the first year,” he said.
“The Romney campaign isn’t stupid. They have decided it is better to get attacked on lack of transparency, lack of accountability to the American people versus telling you what’s in those taxes,” Emanuel added.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), appearing on the program after Emanuel, said the Obama campaign attacks show “that he’s just a small politician and running on small-ball politics at a time when our country is facing grave, grave challenges.”
“He’s released his 2010 tax returns. He’s going to release his 2011 tax returns,” Ayotte said. “But that’s not what the American people are focusing on. They’re worried about their own tax returns, whether they can find jobs.”
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