South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint: Mitt Romney needs more empathy
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).
Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint said today on ABC News Radio that Mitt Romney needs to be more empathetic and better explain the layoffs that occurred during his reign at Bain Capital.
“I know I had to do it a few times in my career and I had sleepless nights and it killed me to do it but I was doing it to save the other employees in my company and keep it going,” DeMint told ABC News. “If he doesn’t explain this well he’s going to see this again if he’s the nominee in the general election.”
Romney spent yesterday defending his history as a corporate buyout specialist for Bain Capital after Rick Perry attacked him for laying off hundreds of workers in two companies in South Carolina under Bain’s supervision.
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Perry’s attacks ended up having a boomerang effect however, causing him to lose the support of prominent South Carolina Republican and top GOP donor, Barry Wynn, to Romney.
DeMint also defended Romney against Perry's attack, saying " Everyone knows that over half of new businesses fail and that's part of the process of failing and getting up and succeeding," USA Today reported.
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DeMint has yet to endorse a GOP presidential candidate and said he will most likely do so until after Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
“The only way I could have been dragged into it is if we had two candidates and one was just completely on the wrong track and the other was moving in the conservative direction,” DeMint said.
Despite his comments he will not yet endorse, DeMint may have already silently decided to support Romney.
The National Journal reported:
"Many observers suspect DeMint wants to get on board with Romney, as he did in 2008, but fears blowback from a conservative community that views Romney as antithetical to its core beliefs. Wisely, DeMint has decided not to risk his kingmaker status to annoint someone who's already well on his way to being crowned."