The Blog

DNC Chair Says Obama's Private Equity Doublespeak Is 'Apples and Coconuts'

9:44 AM, May 25, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER
Widget tooltip
Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

This morning on CNN, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was asked, "Why is it not hypocrisy for the president to take campaign donations from private equity when he's attacking private equity making that an essential part of his campaign?"

The chairwoman responded, "It's not comparing apples and oranges, it's comparing apples and coconuts."

Here's the video:

When asked what she meant by "coconuts," Wasserman Schultz went to say, "Accepting a contribution from a particular person involved in venture capital and criticizing Mitt Romney, who has made his record as a venture capitalist at Bain the essential focus of his credibility and qualification for being president, are completely different things."

Yet a little later in the interview she was stumped. "Let's compare apples to apples," the other CNN host said to the DNC chair. "It seems to me the criticism you're offering is that Mitt Romney went into businesses and laid people off. But wouldn't the apples to apples comparison be that's exactly what Barack Obama did when he touts the auto industry as a feather in his cap, didn't the federal government and Barack Obama go in and layoff thousands of autoworkers to save that industry?"

Wasserman Schultz then ducked by changing the topic.

Recent Blog Posts