Rep. Jim Clyburn told msnbc's Craig Melvin Tuesday that Democratic attacks on Bain Capital are fair game, and that the firm's work involved "raping companies."
“This is not an attack on free enterprise,” said Clyburn, a top Democrat. “I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise. But there’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a serious problem with that.”
Clyburn added that Democrats have little choice but to talk about Bain, the private equity firm formerly run by Mitt Romney. “What are we supposed to be comparing President Obama to if we don’t compare it to the record that this man has with Bain Capital?," he asked. "[Romney] doesn’t talk about his Massachusetts governorship.”
Clyburn was pushing back against Newark mayor Cory Booker, who said on Meet the Press Sunday that the Obama camapign's attacks on Bain—which have focused on workers who were laid off after their companies were acqwuired by the private equity firm—were "nauseating." He walked back those remarks Monday night on The Rachel Maddow Show.
Late Update: The Obnama camapign is denouncing Clybrun's comments. "We strongly disagree with Congressman Clyburn's choice of words- they have no place in this conversation," campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement to Fox News.