Biden: Romney auto ad 'outrageous lie'

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SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Vice President Joe Biden joined auto executives and fact checkers in criticizing a Romney campaign ad, telling voters in Florida the ad is an "outrageous lie."

The ad, airing in the battleground state of Ohio, implies General Motors Co. used funds from the automobile industry bailout to hire more workers in China than in the United States.

GM spokesman Greg Martin said Tuesday: "At this stage, we're looking at Hubble telescope-length distances between campaign ads and reality. GM's creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country should be a source of bipartisan pride."

At a campaign rally in Sarasota Wednesday, Biden called the ad "one of the most flagrantly dishonest ads I can ever remember in my political career."

"It's an outrageous lie," he said, noting that the ad also implies Chrysler Group LLC plans to move Jeep production to China.

Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne -- whose company last week said Romney was wrong when he told a campaign rally in Ohio Chrysler was "thinking of moving all production to China" -- told employees in an email Tuesday Jeep production "will not be moved from the United States to China."

"Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots," Marchionne said. "This will never change."

The company called initial speculation Jeep production would move a "leap that would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats."

"I wouldn't call these guys acrobats," Biden said Wednesday. "I'd call them contortionists."

The vice president said the Romney campaign was using the ad "to scare the living devil out of a group of people who have been hurt so badly," Politico reported.

"What a cynical, cynical thing to do," Biden said.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, issued a statement saying: "American taxpayers are on track to lose $25 billion as a result of President Obama's handling of the auto bailout, and GM and Chrysler are expanding their production overseas. These are facts that voters deserve to know as they listen to the claims President Obama and his campaign are making. President Obama has chosen not to run on the facts of his record, but he can't run from them."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the Detroit News comments by critics of the ad "don't refute anything in our ad"