"Today it was reported in the Washington Post that the companies his firm owned were 'pioneers' in the outsourcing of American jobs to places like China and India - pioneers," Obama told a crowd of 2,500 at Hillsborough Community College. "Tampa, we do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office. We need a president who will fight for American jobs and fight for American manufacturing. That's what my plan will do. That's why I'm running for a second term as president of the United States."
Earlier Friday, the Romney campaign had sharply criticized the Post report. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul called it a "fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing vs. offshoring nor vs. work done overseas to support U.S. exports."
Saul continued: "Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real-world economy, so he understands why jobs come and they go. As president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. President Obama's attacks on profit and job creators make it less attractive to create jobs in the U.S."
The Post article described investments made by Bain Capital in firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries.
After Obama's speech in Tampa, the Romney campaign issued a further statement, saying Obama "continued to talk about anything but his record on the economy."
