Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Monday night that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would have let the U.S. automotive industry fail.

“I would say clearly Mitt Romney’s economic policies want to take us to a point in time which actually led to the crisis we had, both in the auto industry, the financial sector and the economy as a whole,” he said.

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“Remember, if it was up to Mitt Romney, we wouldn’t have an auto industry,” Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff, continued.

“He said let them go. President Obama said absolutely not, I’m going to double-down on the American worker. And whose policies were right for that industry is also who is right for this country.”

Romney had opposed Obama’s plan to bail out the auto giants General Motors and Chrysler with federal funds, a program that is credited with saving the two companies. The U.S. auto manufacturer Ford was not part of the $80 billion bail out program.

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below: