Newark NJ Mayor Cory Booker: "Bain has done a lot to support businesses"

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff - May 20, 2012 11:19 am

Newark Mayor Cory Booker credited Bain Capital with growing businesses and said attacks on private equity must stop, during “Meet the Press” Sunday.

As far as that stuff, I have to say from a very personal level, I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity. It’s—to me, we’re just getting to a ridiculous point in America. Especially, I know, I live in a state where pension funds, unions and other people are investing in companies like Bain Capital. If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses; this to me, I’m very uncomfortable.



Booker went on to compare the private equity attacks to attacks on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, calling them a “distraction” and “crap.”

But the last point I’ll make is, this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough—stop attacking private equity, stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop. Because what it does is it undermines to me what this country should be focused on. It’s a distraction from the real issues. This is either going to be a small campaign about this crap, or it’s going to be a big campaign about the issues that the American public cares about.

Former Obama administration auto czar Steve Rattner also defended the record of Bain Capital last week, during a “Morning Joe” segment.

“So, yeah, I do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately, this is part of capitalism. This is part of life,” Rattner said. “And I don’t think there’s anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about.”