Rahm Emanuel thinks Mitt Romney should take his own advice and quit his "whining."
Emanuel, the current mayor of Chicago and Obama's former White House Chief of Staff, was replying to the Romney campaign's demand for an apology from the Obama camp. Obama campaign spokesperson Stephanie Cutter had said earlier this week that Romney may have committed a felony by "misrepresenting" his role at Bain to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Give it up on Stephanie. Don't worry about that," Emanuel said Sunday on ABC's This Week.
"What are you going to do when the Chinese leader says something? Or Putin says something to you? You're going to whine as your way? You cannot do that. And as Mitt Romney said once to his own Republican colleagues: Stop whining. I'll give him his own advice: Stop whining."
Emanuel, like other Democrats, also called on Romney to release more of his tax records.
"The Romney campaign isn't stupid," he said. "They have decided it is better to get attacked on the lack of transparency, lack of accountability to the American people, versus telling you what's in those taxes."
"His tax filing looks more like the Olympic Village than it does like a middle class family," he added.
The Republican presidential candidate bowed to political pressure in January and released his two most recent tax records, which showed him raking in $21.7 million in 2010 and paying a tax rate of just 14 percent (about $3 million).
Romney hasn't drawn a real salary in years, and the numbers confirm what most analysts believed: The bulk of his income comes from investment gains. Because capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate—15 percent—than the levy on the salaries of the wealthiest Americans—35 percent—Romney has an annual income in the top 1 percent of Americans paired with a relatively low tax rate.
Pressure is mounting on Romney to be more public with his finances. This week he said he would not release income returns beyond his 2010 tax records and his 2011 taxes before Election Day.