Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

At an event in Commerce, Michigan this morning Mitt Romney referenced his roots in the Great Lakes State by making a comment that the Obama campaign denounced as an allusion to the persistent, discredited questions about President Barack Obama's citizenship.

"No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised," Mr. Romney said.

Ben LaBolt, national press secretary for the Obama campaign, quickly issued a statement condemning Mr. Romney's "birther comments." The Romney campaign countered that the remark was simply a nod to Mr. Romney's birthplace.

“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America," said Mr. LaBolt.

A Romney campaign aide disputed the notion that Mr. Romney was referring to the so-called "birther" theories that Mr. Obama's birth certificate may be a fake.

"The governor has always said, and has repeatedly said, he believes the president was born here in the United States. He was only referencing that Michigan, where he is campaigning today, is the state where he himself was born and raised," the aide said.

In an interview with CNBC last April, Mr. Romney unequivocally said he thinks "the president was born in the United States.

“I think the citizenship test has been passed. I believe the president was born in the United States. And there are real reasons to get this guy out of office. And the number one reason is he doesn't understand how the economy works and how to create jobs in the private sector," Mr. Romney said. "He also has made extraordinary mistakes internationally, globally. The man needs to be taken out of office, but his citizenship isn't the reason why."

Ryan Zinke in his Navy days. (Photo: IraqVetsForCongress.com)

Earlier this week, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc., a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces personnel, launched a campaign criticizing President Barack Obama for unfairly taking credit for killing Osama bin Laden and leaking national security information for political gain. This is the second high-profile attack on the president from ex-elite military operatives. Last month, Ryan Zinke, a Montana State Senator and former commander of Navy SEAL Team Six, started a super PAC, Special Operations for America, which is dedicated to supporting Mitt Romney and hitting President Obama on leaks and on politicizing Bin Laden's death. According to Mr. Zinke, these two super PACs are just the first salvo in what will be a sustained assault on the president by high-level ex-soldiers.

"There's a number of groups out there," Mr. Zinke told Politicker this morning. "I think what it demonstrates is, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of concern among the former military community."

Mr. Zinke said he believes these feelings of anger were fueled by a series of White House leaks and an Obama campaign commercial featuring President Bill Clinton that questioned whether Mr. Romney would have ordered the SEAL Team Six raid that killed Bin Laden.

"I think there is huge concern that the administration is using and continues to leak class documents for less than--well, for political gain," said Mr. Zinke. "I think when the commercial came out with President Clinton and President Obama, and they talked about the political ramifications of failure, they didn't talk about the families that would be left without a father. They talked about political consequences—that was a bridge too far."

Mr. Zinke also pointed to White House leaks about the Bin Laden raid to a pair of filmmakers who are making a movie about the operation as something that was upsetting to military personnel.

"There's a lot of reasons you can release classified information, a lot of justifiable reasons, but making a movie for political gain isn't one of them," Mr. Zinke said.

According to Mr. Zinke, there are currently at least four other anti-Obama groups made up of former elite military operatives: Special Operations Speaks, Veterans for a Strong America, Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc. and his group, Special Operations for America. He said he expects that number to climb. Because active-duty soldiers are barred from engaging in political activity, Mr. Zinke believes it is especially important for retired military personnel to speak up.

"It's really incumbent upon the retired guys to articulate a message. You look at the approval ratings of the president, Congress is in single-digits, the president is not far behind, and I think Americans still appreciate the credibility of our military," he said.

(For the record, the president's approval rating actually currently stands at over 40 percent.)

Mr. Zinke described his group and VSA as "kind of sisters" and said he knows some of the officers involved in other groups from his days in the SEALs, but said SOFA doesn't coordinate with any other groups.

"We're trying to link many of these organizations for a unified effort and, to a degree, they're like herding cats," said Mr. Zinke.

Though he knows there's "power in a unified message," Mr. Zinke said part of his reluctance to associate his group with other similar organizations is because, "SOFA is a little more cautious; we don't want to editorialize."

The Obama campaign criticized Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc. as being akin to the "swift boat" attacks that smeared John Kerry in 2004 and noted that, despite claims of nonpartisanship, the group has ties to the GOP.  Mr. Zinke dismissed these criticisms of the former military groups attacking President Obama.

"There's going to be attempts to discredit," Mr. Zinke said. "I guess when you take a stand, you expose yourself to rocks. And so be it."

For his part, Mr. Zinke said his organization is "not swift boat."

"I can speak for SOFA—we are not swift boat in that what we are articulat[ing] is factual, and we're very careful not to make personal attacks. We are making a complete argument of why the administration's actions and policies are not in the best interests of national defense and national security," said Mr. Zinke.

Special Operations for America's upcoming plans include a television commercial. Mr. Zinke said the ad would be "edgy," but wouldn't be "a personal attack."

"I don't stoop to personal attacks," he said. "You know, I'm not from Chicago. In Montana, we do things a little differently."

Watch the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc. video, "Dishonorable Disclosures," below.

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

At an event in South Carolina today, Mitt Romney rebuffed the repeated questions the Obama campaign has raised about him not revealing more than two years of his tax returns by claiming he's paid at least a 13 percent tax rate for the past decade.

“I did go back and look at my taxes, and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year,” Mr. Romney said.

Obama campaign national press secretary Ben LaBolt was asked how the campaign would respond to Mr. Romney's claim on a press conference call with reporters this afternoon. Mr. LaBolt's answer was simple. He said Romney should "prove it" by releasing more of his returns. 

"The key is the ability to prove his claim; look, this is a candidate who has defied bipartisan precedent—his own father put out 12 years of returns," Mr. LaBolt said. "Governor Romney has only put out two years of returns, and the fact is, the American people deserve the opportunity to look through those documents and make their own conclusions."

Mr. LaBolt said making his tax returns public would be the only way for Mr. Romney to answer several questions, including "discrepancies" in his financial disclosure statements, why he transferred ownership of a Bermuda-based corporation to his wife before he was inaugurated as governor of Massachusetts, whether he avoided taxes by keeping assets offshore and why he opened a Swiss bank account.

"He has the ability to answer all these questions by releasing several years of his tax returns, and he simply hasn't done that," said Mr. LaBolt. "So we would say, 'Prove it, Governor Romney."

Questions about Mr. Romney's taxes have also come from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has claimed to have knowledgeable, unnamed sources who informed him Mr. Romney may not have paid any taxes at all during some years. His spokesman, Adam Jentleson, didn't back down from this accusation after Mr. Romney's statement today.

"We'll believe it when we see it. Until Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, Americans will continue to wonder what he's hiding," Mr. Jentleson said.

Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

Last night, the presidential campaigns each accused the other of dragging down the level of discourse in the election. Mitt Romney fired first with a speech in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he accused President Barack Obama of acting "angry and desperate." Mr. Romney made his charge based on comments Vice President Joe Biden made during a speech in Virginia that Mr. Romney's policies would enable banks to put people "back in chains."

"His campaign and his surrogates have made wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the presidency. Another outrageous charge came a few hours ago in Virginia. And the White House sinks a little bit lower," said Mr. Romney. "This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like."

The Obama campaign quickly followed up with a blistering statement of its own calling Romney "unhinged" and "strange."

“Governor Romney's comments tonight seemed unhinged, and particularly strange coming at a time when he's pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative ads that are demonstrably false," Obama For America National Press Secretary Ben LaBolt said.

Mr. Romney's ads, particularly a recent spate of attacks on welfare, have been criticized as "completely false" by the Obama campaign.

In response to the increasingly nasty nature of this year's presidential election, Mr. Romney seemingly called for a campaign-trail truce in an interview with NBC News' Chuck Todd last week.

"[O]ur campaign would be helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon business or family or taxes or things of that nature ..." Mr. Romney said. "Only talk about issues. And we can talk about the differences between our positions and our opponent’s position."

During that same interview, Mr. Romney said his ads, unlike President Obama's, "haven’t gone after the personal things." Mr. Romney's plea for peace was seen by some as an attempt to avoid damaging attacks on his tax returns and his work with Bain Capital. Whatever his motivations were, based on last night's action, it doesn't seem like there's a chance we'll be seeing a truce on the campaign trail any time soon.

Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

On the heels of reports by Vanity Fair and the Associated Press detailing Mitt Romney's offshore investments in Switzerland, the Caymans and Bermuda, the Obama campaign released a new video featuring on-the-street interviews with people who don't have offshore investments.

"I wouldn't have an overseas bank account and I don't think our next president should have an overseas bank account either," a man says in the clip.

The video also raises the question of whether Mr. Romney has "avoided U.S. taxes by investing millions in offshore tax havens."

"We'll never know, because he won't release his tax returns," text displayed in the video says.

After pressure from his rivals in the Republican primaries, Mr. Romney released two years of his tax returns in January. He did not release 12 years of returns, a tradition for presidential candidates that was started by his father, former Michigan Governor George Romney, before his 1968 presidential campaign. The returns Mr. Romney did release showed that, based on his adjusted gross income, his average tax rate for the past two years was about 14.65 percent, well below the 35 percent rate other earners in the top income tax bracket pay without creative accounting. In a conference call following the release of his returns, Brad Malt, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray who has served as the trustee for the Romney family’s three trusts since 2003, said he had closed Mr. Romney's Swiss bank account in 2010 to avoid potential political problems for Mr. Romney.

“I regularly review Governor Romney’s investments, and just in connection with one of my periodic reviews, I decided that this account wasn’t serving any particular purpose," Mr. Malt said. "It might or might not be consistent with Governor Romney’s political views, you know, again the taxes were all fully paid, et cetera, but it just wasn’t worth it and I closed the account.”

Mr. Malt also disputed the idea Mr. Romney's investments in foreign entities constituted offshore accounts.

“I read a press account this morning that refers to these funds as accounts. That is simply wrong. These are not accounts in any sense of the word. These are investments in third party entities,” Mr. Malt said. “Suppose I buy 100 shares of Toyota stock. I do not have a Japanese account, I have 100 shares of Toyota stock in my U.S. brokerage account," Mr. Malt said. "It is a foreign investment, it is not a foreign account.…The blind trust’s investment in the Cayman funds are taxed exactly the same as if Governor Romney owned his share of investments made by the funds directly and in the United States rather than through Cayman funds.”

However, according to the AP, Mr. Romney's investments in a company in Bermuda "deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed, according to experts in private equity, tax and campaign finance law."

The Obama campaign's national press secretary, Ben LaBolt, echoed these questions in a statement released along with today's video.

“Yesterday’s Associated Press story raises serious questions about whether Mitt Romney established a Bermuda corporation to avoid U.S. taxes and attempted to hide it from the public. According to the report, Romney transferred the mysterious corporation to a blind trust in his wife’s name one day before taking office as Governor in order to avoid disclosure. In fact, he left this entity off of seven different personal financial disclosure statements he was required to file under state and federal law since 2001," Mr. LaBolt said. "Bermuda does not tax corporate income or capital gains. Until Romney releases additional years of tax returns, the American people will never know whether he created this shell corporation to intentionally avoid paying U.S. taxes. What is Mitt Romney trying to hide?”

Watch the Obama campaign's video about Mr. Romney's offshore assets below.

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from two Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back.

"No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization," said Mr. LaBolt.  "The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression, manufacturing and the auto industry revived, and support his agenda to build an economy that lasts where America outinnovates and outeducates the rest of the world and economic security for the middle class is restored."

On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden defended the attacks on Mr. Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. Though he insisted he wasn't "criticizing private equity firms," Mr. Biden said there were many examples of Mr. Romney and his Bain colleagues causing tremendous harm.

"You hear all these stories about his partners buying companies … where they load up with a tremendous amount of debt. The companies go under, everybody loses their job, the community is devastated, but they make money," said Mr. Biden. "They make money even when a company goes bankrupt, when workers lose their jobs.”

Earlier in the week, President Obama described Bain and other private equity firms as a "healthy part of the free market" filled with many  "folks who do good work." However, he also said the priority of private equity companies is to "maximize profits," which is "not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers." Because of this, he said Mr. Romney's work at Bain Capital isn't good preparation for the presidency.

"If your main argument for how to grow the economy is, ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,’ then you are missing what this job is about," President Obama said. "It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity. But that’s not what my job is as president. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some."

Cory Booker (Photo: Twitter)

After calling the Obama campaign's repeated attacks on Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital "nauseating" during an interview Sunday, Newark mayor and Obama campaign surrogate Cory Booker released a video where he clarified his stance while reiterating his distaste with negative campaigning on both sides.

Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt subsequently distributed two heavily edited versions of the video that only included Mr. Booker saying "it is reasonable and, in fact, I encourage it, for the Obama campaign to examine" Mr. Romney's business record because he has made it "a centerpiece of his campaign" and criticizing Mr. Romney as "not being completely honest" about his career. This morning, The Politicker sent Mr. LaBolt an email asking why he edited the video and what his response was to Mr. Booker's call for both sides to stop the negative campaigning.

"Mayor Booker released the full video which was widely distributed - we highlighted the portion of the video in which he addressed whether or not a discussion of Mitt Romney's private sector record was appropriate," Mr. LaBolt wrote. "He made clear that it is - that it's the central premise of Romney's candidacy and that Romney had not accurately represented that record."

We emailed with Mr. LaBolt after an Obama campaign conference call where the issue was discussed. On that call, Mr. LaBolt defended the campaign's criticism of Mr. Romney's work at Bain.

"We're not questioning the purpose of the private equity business as a whole or Romney's capacity to run a business as he saw fit," he said. "We're questioning what the values and lessons are from that experience and whether the economic philosophy that he demonstrated while he was a corporate buyout specialist is one that Americans would like to see in the Oval Office."

Mr. LaBolt also pointed to the segment of Mr. Booker's video that he highlighted as evidence Mr. Booker believes the Bain criticism is legitimate.

"As you know, Mayor Booker expanded upon his comments yesterday and he pointed out, in a similar fashion that we have today, that Romney has based his candidacy on his tenure as a corporate buyout specialist," said Mr. LaBolt.

For some reason, we were unable to get in the queue to ask about the video during the call even though, at one point, Mr. LaBolt said they had no more "outstanding" questions. In his emails with us today, Mr. LaBolt answered our question and said he wasn't sure what happened and they  "took every questioner we saw pop up."

Mitt Romney

Former President George W. Bush expressed his support for Mitt Romney in a brief exchange with an ABC reporter as he boarded an elevator after a speech in Washington, D.C. today.

"I’m for Mitt Romney," Mr. Bush said.

Though ABC posted the story over two hours ago, Mr. Romney's campaign has yet to send out any official press release or statement trumpeting Mr. Bush's endorsement. On the other hand, the Obama campaign quickly pounced on the chance to tie Mr. Romney to Mr. Bush, who according to the most recent polls is viewed unfavorably by the majority of Americans.

"President Bush has endorsed Governor Romney, and Governor Romney has endorsed a return to Bush-era economic policies: massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and no accountability for Wall Street, which led to huge deficits and tepid growth. Now Romney wants to double down on those same, failed policies," Obama For America press secretary Ben LaBolt said in a statement sent out less than an hour after ABC published their story on Mr. Bush's comment.

"While President Obama has pursued policies that have helped create more than 4.2 million private sector jobs, revived manufacturing and the auto industry, Governor Romney would return to the same policies that dragged our economy down and punished the middle class," Mr. LaBolt said.

Though the Romney campaign hasn't issued any statement about Mr. Bush's endorsement today, they have hardly been quiet about other subjects. Mr. Romney's team has sent five other press releases in the two hours since the Bush news broke including a statement criticizing the effect of President Obama's economic policies on Iowa, two responses to quotes from the president's appearance on The View, an "in case you missed it" email announcing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's endorsement of Mr. Romney and an email highlighting statements in support of Mr. Romney made by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Fox News this morning.

As of this writing, the Romney campaign has not responded to a request for comment on this story.

Update: The Romney campaign responded to questions about Mr. Bush's endorsement by saying they "welcome" his support but don't expect there to be joint campaign appearances with Mr. Romney and Mr. Bush.

President Barack Obama (Photo: Getty)

President Barack Obama's campaign is playing defense on his record of support for gay rights as fallout over Vice President Joe Biden's comment he's "absolutely comfortable" with same sex marriage continued for a second day. Mr. Biden's remark led to criticism the president isn't taking a firm position on gay marriage, most recently from former New York Governor George Pataki who blasted President Obama for "looking to have both sides" on the issue in an RNC conference call this morning. Ben LaBolt, the national press secretary for President Obama's campaign fired back by characterizing the president as a strong supporter of the gay community and accusing Mr. Romney of planning to reverse progress the Obama administration has made on gay rights.

"Mitt Romney deployed Governor Pataki today to call for consistency on gay rights. Governor Pataki must not be familiar with either the President’s record or Governor Romney’s," Mr. LaBolt said in a statement. "The President has done more to advance gay rights than any other president – from securing hospital visitation and medical decision-making rights for gay partners, to repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, to advancing equal rights and benefits for gays and lesbians."

Mr. LaBolt said Mr. Romney has had his own flip flop on gay rights since his 1994 run for Senate in Massachusetts.

"Governor Romney went from promising to be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights to working to enshrine discrimination into the Constitution by passing a federal marriage amendment, personally funding efforts to roll back equal rights for gays and lesbians in states, and making clear he would have kept Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in place," Mr. LaBolt said. "The country has moved forward since 1994, when Governor Romney was supposedly an advocate on these issues, yet Governor Romney has moved backwards."

Mr. LaBolt concluded his statement by predicting Mr. Romney "would turn back the clock on all of the progress this President has made to advance equal rights."

"On the issues important to gays and lesbians, Governor Romney hasn’t evolved–he has regressed," Mr. LaBolt said.

President Obama might not want to come out as a strong supporter of same sex marriage, but he clearly doesn't think he can afford to be seen as being against gay rights. Especially since, according to a Washington Post review of the president's donor lists, "about one in six of Obama’s top campaign 'bundlers' are gay."