Obama to continue attack on Bain

• Tweet

WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital remains a legitimate target of attack as he seeks the U.S. presidency, the Obama campaign says.

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the president's campaign for reelection, said the attacks will continue, The Hill reported. The campaign ran two ads on Bain in the past two weeks.

"Mitt Romney has made his tenure as a corporate buyout specialist the central premise of his candidacy and claimed it is what credentials him to be a job creator as president," LaBolt told the Hill in an email. "But Governor Romney's goal wasn't job creation, as he claims, it was profit maximization for himself and his partners -- he profited off of bankrupting companies and outsourcing jobs."

Some Democrats, including President Bill Clinton, have suggested Obama back off Bain. But the president is hardly the first to go after it.

In 1994, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., fending off a Romney challenge, featured laid-off employees who blamed Bain for their plight. And Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination this year, talked of "rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company."