Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, was taken to task on Thursday morning during an appearance on CNN for misleading remarks made by vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan at the Republican National Convention.
As he has several times during the campaign, Ryan insinuated on Wednesday night that President Barack Obama failed to save a Wisconsin auto factory from closing. In reality, the factory was shuttered in 2008, when former President George W. Bush was still in office. But Fehrnstrom denied that the campaign was suggesting that the closure occurred under Obama, offering a confusing and vague explanation for the attack that has become a hallmark of Ryan’s stump speech.
ANCHOR: You know, Eric, that the decision to close that plant was made in June of 2008, when President Bush was in office. What Paul Ryan said there was clearly misleading.
FEHRNSTROM: Well, no. He didn’t talk about Obama closing the plant. He said that candidate Obama went there in 2008, and what he said was with government assistance, we can keep this plant open for another 100 years. Here we are four years into his administration. That plant is still closed. I think it’s a symbol of a recovery that hasn’t materialized for the people of Janesville, Wisconsin, just as it hasn’t materialized for Americans everywhere.
ANCHOR: He left the impression that President Obama shut that plant down.
FEHRNSTROM: Well, I would encourage people to go back and look at what candidate Obama said in 2008. What he said was with his recovery program, with government assistance, we can keep that plant open for 100 years. Four years later, it’s still shuttered. I think it’s a symbol of a broken economy under this president.
