Southampton, NY – Democrats Want Romney to Explain Offshore Accounts

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    Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stands near his grandchildren's toys at his home on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H., Saturday, July 7, 2012, as he continues his vacation from the campaign trail. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)Southampton, NY – Mitt Romney privately raised millions of dollars from New York’s elite on Sunday, as Democrats launched coordinated attacks against the likely Republican presidential nominee, intensifying calls for him to explain offshore bank accounts and release several years of tax returns.

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    The line of attack, dismissed by the Romney campaign as an “unfounded character assault,” follows new reports that raise questions about Romney’s personal wealth, which could exceed $250 million. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is expected to push the strategy throughout the coming week, underscoring their desire to portray Romney as disconnected from the middle-class voters he needs to win the presidency.

    “He’s the first and only candidate for the president of the United States with a Swiss bank account, with tax shelters, with tax avoidance schemes that involve so many foreign countries,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He’s one of several high-profile Democrats who spoke out on the Sunday morning news shows.

    Romney may have unintentionally helped the Obama campaign.

    Republican donors driving Mercedes, Bentleys – and in one case a candy red 2013 Ferrari Spider – crowded into a series of closed-door Romney fundraisers in the Hamptons, New York’s exclusive string of waterfront communities on Long Island’s South Shore. Wall Street bankers and brokerage house chiefs, among others, make the area their weekend playground. Romney’s Hamptons swing follows a weeklong vacation at his lakeside vacation home in New Hampshire.

    Voters are split on whether they trust Romney or Obama more to run the nation’s economy, but a majority says that Obama better understands their concerns.

    The Hamptons crowd, however, saw things differently.

    “I think he’s a plain talking guy,” Peter Cohen said, referring to Romney. Cohen, the former Shearson Lehman Brothers chief who now heads his own investment banking firm, made the comment as he chewed a cigar in his black Range Rover outside a Romney fundraiser expected to generate $3 million.

    Romney’s day concluded at the Southampton estate of billionaire industrialist David Koch, where donors were asked to give $50,000 per person or $75,000 per couple. The event attracted protesters like Robert Shainwald, a 65-year-old retired teacher.

    “Romney has no idea what the working person’s daily concerns are. How could he?” Shainwald said as he waved a sign offering free vegetables to anyone who wasn’t a billionaire.

    Romney would be among the nation’s richest presidents if elected. He made his fortune at Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm that has become a key part of the argument for his White House bid. He hasn’t drawn a regular paycheck in more than a decade, however, and has instead lived off a series of investments.

    But Romney has refused to release more than two years of tax returns that would outline those investments, breaking from a precedent set by his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, who released 12 years of his tax returns when he sought the presidency a generation ago. And an Associated Press report recently raised questions about a previously undisclosed Bermuda-based company included in Romney’s portfolio until the day before he became Massachusetts governor.

    Obama adviser Robert Gibbs said Romney could easily clear up questions about his personal finances if he simply released “a series of years” of returns.

    “Mitt Romney’s father was the pioneer for releasing a series of tax returns,” Gibbs said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The best way to figure out if Mitt Romney is complying with American tax law is to have him release more of his tax returns.”

    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered to be in the running for Romney’s vice presidential hunt, struggled to defend the offshore financial activity on ABC’s “This Week,” dismissing the criticism as “a distraction from the Obama campaign.” And a Romney spokesman suggested the new attack was inappropriate.

    “The Obama campaign’s latest unfounded character assault on Mitt Romney is unseemly and disgusting,” spokesman Andrea Saul said. “Mitt Romney had a successful career in the private sector, pays every dime of taxes he owes, has given generously to charitable organizations and served numerous causes greater than himself.”

    The new push by Obama and his allies comes two days after the release of a lackluster jobs report that said the nation’s unemployment rate was stuck at 8.2 percent. Romney has been largely focused on the economy throughout his campaign, an issue that voters overwhelmingly report will be on the top of their minds come Election Day.

    Some high-profile Republicans have recently criticized Romney for not being specific enough on his economic plans. And some fear that the Republican campaign is not being aggressive enough in defending his business career and personal wealth.

    But Romney didn’t have to defend his background in the Hamptons.

    “This country is about business,” said Cohen, the investment banker. “Mitt Romney understands business.”


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    23 Comments
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    k9hara
    k9hara
    11 years ago

    I think Romney should explain his off-shore accounts as soon as Obama explains his off-shore birth!!

    pbalaw
    pbalaw
    11 years ago

    With Obama as president , where should Romney keep his money? All this shows is that he is smart

    Nobody
    Nobody
    11 years ago

    “Mitt Romney privately raised millions of dollars from New York’s elite on Sunday” I love the smell of media bias in the morning. Ever hear the AP write: “President Obama tied up traffic in New York for hours raising millions of dollars from New York’s elite on Sunday”? Why not, President Fund Raiser (he has held more fund raisers as president than the last 5 combined) does it all the time, acting in Broadway shows on the side.

    sambayon
    sambayon
    11 years ago

    I as a Republican want Obama to explain how as a community organizer he is worth 10-12 million dollars, When he will explain this than Romney will explain his offshore accounts,
    Fair deal? I think so

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    11 years ago

    He also was a professor of constitutional law at a community college/university called Harvard. The pay good salaries there. Any of you brilliant minds can apply there too and teach Kenyan law.

    AuthenticSatmar
    AuthenticSatmar
    11 years ago

    The hypocrisy is unbelievable. Obama has had just as many elite fundraisers.
    As for his tax returns, it was Obama who said about his birth certificate “that it’s just a distraction”.
    The Democratic machine is getting nervous and they’re starting to fall apart.
    I hope the American people are smarter than Obama believes we are. It was he who said that the average American “doesn’t really understand” his health plan.

    lazerx
    lazerx
    11 years ago

    as a religious friend, a judge, said about tax loopholes, “if they are legal and you don’t take them, you are nuts,”. If Romney’s assets off shore are legal, he also would be stupid not to use them, if they are illegal, well, then he has what to explain.

    11 years ago

    Let Romney explain after obama explains he ties to the Seiu, saul alinski, bob ayers, and all leftist and communist orgs; including why georoge soros is investing so much money in obama

    Yonason_Herschlag
    Yonason_Herschlag
    11 years ago

    Bama hasn’t even provided evidence that he’s eligible for presidency. He’s got a lot of explaining to do himself, however, he’s spent millions on covering up the details of his past instead of explaining. Some chutzpa the guy has demanding from Romney to explain his past, when he himself won’t.

    Member
    11 years ago

    Romney is designed to slay the dreidle and break the mind.

    savtat
    savtat
    11 years ago

    Be careful – you might get what you wish for. If there is a Romney win, what do you think will happen to all those “liberal” government programs?

    Member
    11 years ago

    Romney is underneath the faith.

    mythoughts
    mythoughts
    11 years ago

    Obama is throwing up smoke screens to distract people from his miserable record. Any discussion of Obama’s birth or Romney’s bank accounts by either side is a winning argument for Obama. Let’s stick to the facts and throw him out.

    11 years ago

    What really irks me is when people look into other people’s pockets, and start passing rumors about how much money they allegedly have or don’t have. This is America, and people are free to make as much money as they want, or as little as they want. When Rep. Charles Rangel’s offshore rental properties came under scrutiny by Congress, there was very little criticism of those properties, by the Democrats, even though it was conclusively shown that no taxes at all were being paid on the rental property income. There were even some in the Congressional Black Caucus, who claimed that Rangel was being picked on because of his race. My point is that it is not against the law to be rich, and this class warfare which the Democrats have been promoting in their ads and commercial, is nothing but trash!