President Barack Obama's re-election machine reached a new low on Wednesday, pushing out an ad that claimed that Republican challenger Mitt Romney was somehow responsible for the cancer death of a former roller skating champion.
The ad, paid for by Priorities USA Action featured a heart-rending message from Joe Soptic, who worked at GST Steel — which owned a steel mill in Kansas City which closed after the company was taken over by Bain Capital.
Soptic’s wife died just 22 days after being diagnosed with cancer. She had gone to the doctor believing she was suffering with pneumonia.
Watch how the Obama camp attempts to blame Romney for a cancer death. Story continues below.
“I don’t know how long she was sick, and I think maybe she didn’t say anything because she knew that we couldn’t afford the insurance,” Soptic says in the ad.
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Immediately the Romney camp blasted the ad. Spokesman Ryan Williams told The Washington Post that it is just one of a series of “discredited and dishonest attacks” meant to “conceal the administration’s deplorable economic record.”
Soptic’s wife Ranae — who according to her obituary in the Kansas City Star was a one-time roller skating champion — died in 2006, years after the GST plant was shut down, and well after even Romney’s critics claim he was attached to Bain.
“I don’t think Mitt Romney understands what he’s done to people’s lives by closing the plant,” says Soptic in the ad. “I don’t think he realizes that people’s lives completely changed.
“When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant I lost my healthcare,” he continues. “My family lost their healthcare and a short time after that my wife became ill.”
Soptic relates how he took his wife to the Jackson County Hospital. “That’s when they found the cancer and by then it was Stage 4, there was nothing they could do for her.
“I do not think Mitt Romney what he has done to anyone and furthermore I do not think he is concerned,” he adds.
Priorities USA strategist Bill Burton defended the ad, telling Politico that it illustrates “how long it took for communities and individuals to recover from the closing of these businesses.”
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