Mitt Romney's Swiss bank account drew attention from Democrats Sunday. | AP Photos Dems aim at Mitt's Swiss account

Democrats took to the Sunday shows to attack Mitt Romney’s foreign financial dealings, drawing attention to the Republican candidate’s Swiss bank account to try to promote his wealthy, out-of-touch businessman persona.

In appearances on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs both demanded that Romney release years of tax returns so the American people can see where his assets lie.


“I’d really like to see Mitt Romney release more than one year of tax records because there’s been disturbing reports recently that he’s got a … secretive Bermuda corporation that no one knows anything about, investment in the Caymans … He’s got a Swiss bank account,” Wasserman Schultz said.

The Florida congresswoman added: “Americans need to ask themselves: Why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that?”

Gibbs, the president’s former press secretary, went as far as to say there isn’t enough information to rule out whether the former Massachusetts governor has ever done anything illegal, suggesting that it’s possible that Romney may have skirted taxes.

“The one thing he can do, Candy, to clear up whether or not he’s done anything illegally, whether he’s shielding his income from taxes in Bermuda or Switzerland, is to do whatever other presidential candidate has done and that’s to release a series of years of their own tax returns,” he told host Candy Crowley. “The best way to see if Mitt Romney is complying with America tax law is to have him release more of his tax returns.”

Gibbs also mocked his choice of banks: “I pick a bank because there’s an ATM near my home,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana faced off on the issue on ABC’s “This Week,” with each surrogate trying to push forward their respective campaign’s talking points.

O’Malley, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, suggested that Romney’s Swiss account is fundamentally un-American.

“I’ve never known of a Swiss bank account to build an American bridge, a Swiss bank account to create American jobs, or Swiss bank accounts to rebuild the levies to protect the people of New Orleans. That’s not an economic strategy for moving our country forward,” the Maryland governor said.

Jindal, who appeared alongside O’Malley, seemed to struggle with the question of how voters should view Romney’s offshore investments.

The Louisiana governor — fresh off of the campaign trail where he stumped for Romney in Ohio and Pennsylvania this week — repeatedly dodged substitute host Terry Moran’s questions about the candidate’s Swiss bank account, before finally writing off the issue as “distractions” promoted by the Obama camp.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement that the Obama camp has launched an “unfounded character assault” on the candidate, calling it “unseemly and disgusting.”

“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,” Saul said. “Barack Obama has become what he once ran against – a typical politician willing to use false and dishonest attacks to save his job after failing to do his job. The American people expected more from this president, and he continues to let them down.”

Recent reports from Vanity Fair and the Associated Press have raised questions about Romney’s blind trusts and offshore holdings — articles that the Obama campaign have seized on to question whether it’s right for a presidential candidate to invest outside of the country. The Romney campaign has pushed back on the issue by dismissing it as the Obama camp’s effort to distract from the country’s weak economy.