President tells sodden Virginia crowd that rival needs to clear up questions over his time at Bain, as Romney cries foul

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

President Barack Obama continued to needle Mitt Romney over claims he sent jobs overseas while at Bain Capital, despite demands for an apology by the Republican candidate.

Shaking off a downpour that left him sodden, Obama told a crowd in Virginia that Romney was a "pioneer of outsourcing", keeping with a theme that has rattled Romney in recent days.

Obama's comments were made just a few hours after Romney attempted to draw a line under allegations that he had lied over his involvement in decisions that had seen American jobs shipped abroad.

In a rare media blitz, Romney embarked on a round of appearances on five major television networks as part of what appeared to be a damage-limitation exercise.

But having tasted blood on the issue, the Obama campaign kept jabbing away.

Along with the speech in Virginia, the Democrats launched an attack ad that derides Bain's record of axing jobs, accuses Romney of squirrelling away money in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and claims that as Massachusetts governor, he outsourced state jobs to India.

"Mitt Romney is not the solution. He's the problem," the advert says, to the sound of Romney singing America the Beautiful in a not always tuneful fashion.

The Romney camp has cried foul, but Obama has said that the onus is on Romney to clear up questions about his time at the private equity firm.

The row centres on claims by Romney that he ceded control of Bain in 1999 when he left to run the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The Boston Globe on Thursday published filings by Bain to the Securities and Exchange Commission listing Romney as sole owner, chief executive and president of Bain until 2002.

The issue of the timing is significant, because several companies taken over by Bain between 1999 and 2002 saw lay-offs and closures, with jobs shipped to China, Mexico and other countries – dangerous territory for Romney in an election year in which unemployment is the top issue.

On Thursday, members of the Obama campaign held a phone conference for reporters in which they said Romney was lying to either the American public or the Securities and Exchange Commission about the date when he left the company.

They added that if it was the latter, this was potentially a criminal matter.

It is that charge of mendacity that appears to have sparked Romney into mounting a fresh media fightback.

In Friday's TV interviews he accused Obama of stooping to a new low and engaging in "destructive" politics. "This is reckless and absurd on his part, and it's something that's beneath his dignity," Romney said.

Romney contrasted the current line of attack with Obama's pledge before becoming president in 2009 to raise the tone of politics.

Claiming that Obama was using the Bain issue to divert attention from poor jobs figures, Romney also stuck by his claim that he left private equity firm in 1999.