Mitt Romney’s political director, Rich Beeson, on Sunday suggested that The New York Times — and not the Republican presidential nominee — was responsible for an op-ed calling for the U.S. auto industry to “go bankrupt.”

During an interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Beeson why the Romney campaign was running a “misleading” advertisement which implied that Jeep is sending U.S. jobs overseas when, in fact, the company is adding American jobs.

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“I found it interesting that President Obama would attack Gov. Romney on that when they put up an ad saying that Gov. Romney says, ‘Let Detroit go bankrupt,’ when that’s a headline from a New York Times op-ed,” Beeson replied.

While it’s true that The New York Times selected the title “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” for Romney’s 2008 op-ed, the former Massachusetts governor was reportedly given an opportunity to approve the headline.

Romney also personally repeated the line during a television interview earlier this year.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” he told CBS News. “The headline you just read, ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,’ points out that the companies needed to go through bankruptcy to save those costs.”

Watch this video from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast Nov. 4, 2012.

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