my question which ben labolt did not answer was is it too soon essentially, to release this stuff? get tired of it? is there more to come? do you think they have, as we say, unloaded their clip? >> first of all as you know, campaigns have binders and binders of opposition research and tons of stuff on romney. what this does, we're talking about this and we're not talking about the 8% unemployment rate. we're not talking about the high foreclosure rate, et cetera. it is a complex story. but it is still the same narrative. stephanie cutter used the "n" word comparing romney to nixon. that's an image people can grasp. they may not be able to grasp s.e.c. documents and china but they can grasp nixon. >> jennifer: stephanie cutter used the "f" word, felony. i'm wondering if you think that that's too much or do you think that that was the right thing to do? did they go too far? >> well i think from a messaging standpoint, i think it is good to use strong language with republicans. democrats too often show up to a knife fight with a pez dispenser. [ laughter ] i think is important to get

for more on the battle over bain taxes and crony capitalism, i'm joined now by ben labolt for the obama campaign. so your campaign has gone from asking romney to release his tax returns. if barack obama wins this election, he's going to win ugly, job creation is anemic, voters think the country is going in the wrong direction and the president has been unable to convince them otherwise. so the path is clear, destroy your opponent and pander to your base, obama wan kinobi, it's your crate. have you guys completely thrown that out the wrd and are you going for the jugular on romney playing this type of tough campaign? >> well, we appreciate john's star wars advise, but i don't think that's what the president has been focused on, i'm referring to the speech in cleveland, and his stump speech every day, where he talks about his two competing visions. between a president who believes he would build the economy from the middle class out by investing in education and research and development and infrastructure and clean energy and mitt romney who believes we should continue to reward the wealt

ben labolt is going to be on a little bit later. but what surprises me is mitt romney has known that this issue was going to come out. again, it just surprised me the campaign wasn't ready with a better response, right? to just put this issue to rest. meaning the issue of when he left bain capital in 1999 or 2001 or 2002. >> i think you're making a good point. they should have been better prepared. maybe it is a matter of they didn't see it coming and that happens sometimes in campaigns because in these conversations in boston, you know, somebody brings up hey, all of these storms have him as the sole shareholder and ceo and president, blah, blah, blah. and somebody in the room just says well, that doesn't mean anything. it just means that he was the blah blah, blah. people go okay and then move on. then it becomes a story. because the globe story last week that kind of set all this off was -- there may have been one or two things that were doing it but for the most part, it was a rehash of s.e.c. forms that had been out there and b

. >> joining me now from chicago, ben labolt, national press secretary for the obama campaign. are these scare tactics? >> mi >> -- the story in the "boston globe" yesterday suggested that he had been misleading the public since he was running for office in massachusetts that he left bain in 1999 is to say that we're engaged in scare tactics and the fact is that mitt romney was the ceo, chairman of the board, president, sole owner, and sole shareholder whiof bain capital. >> you mentioned the "boston globe" article from yesterday, there has since been fortune magazine has pretty much said that the meat of that article doesn't really stand up to muster. "washington post" claiming that the obama campaign is blowing smoke here, the weight of evidence suggests that romney did in fact end active management of bain in 1999. he stated that in a federal disclosure form he signed under threat of criminal penalties, he said he was a former employee in a state disclosure form as the state commission concluded 10 years ago that he did indeed leave bain in 1999. this is the well regarded fa

ben labolt said saying at no point did any of the government lawyers say it's a tax is completely wrong. they briefed the court saying it is in fact a tax. guess what, monica, chief justice roberts agrees with the obama administration, it's a tax, let's call it's a tax. >> you know what, you guys, during the legal arguments -- kimberly, you're an attorney, you know this before anybody -- justice scalia said you're going to come back and claim it's not a tax. the fact that they did vest the enforcement power with the irs tells you where they're coming from, but during the political debate none of these democrats pushing this through were willing to call it's a tax, because that is so politically toxic they all ran for the hills. now you've got vulnerable democrats like claire mccaskill and so many others who refuse to answer the question. they don't want to even deal with the fact that now it's a tax, that's what they have to run on. >> that's not popular, right? when you go out to the people, saying we're going to tax you, it's hard enough during this economy, we're going to take more d

coming up in our next hour, ben labolt will bring in their side of the controversy.bring in a republican strategist and democratic strategist. the romney campaign is saying this is really just a paper work problem, the is that going to put this attack to rest? is there a problematic narrative here about mitt romney? >> it's not so much the narrative, but this is a paper work problem and it wasn't presented and it wasn't accepted by the romney camp right away. >> i think that's the term where you hear a lot of republicans what's going on here, whether it's the taxes or the offshore accounts. >> exactly so why they aren't prepared is more of the issue, because frankly there's not a lot there. you have competing news outlets saying there's something there, or something not there. but at the end of the day, people will not care what a piece of paper says if he's going to be held accountable. i guess the question is how does romney respond to this and how quickly? one of the things they have done is they have put out this ad. >> the romney campaign -- the bain capital sto

along with jack abramoff and alice stewart will be our guest and obama campaign press secretary ben labolt and we have a packed show ahead. it is thursday, july 5th, and "starting point" begins right now. >> welcome, everybody. "starting point" with breaking news on a whistle blowing website wiki leaks at it begin. this he have begun publishing 2.5 million e-mails. they're described as embarrassing to syria as well as some of hits opponents and the website says the files, quote, shine a light on the inner workings of the syrian government and economy and also reveal how the west and western firms say one thing and do another. we're watching the story for you and will have more details as the details come in. the rest of the day's top stories, right to brooke baldwin with an update on headlines. >> welcome back from the beach. good to see you. good morning, everyone. about 700,000 people waking up to another day without power. look at the map. you see 11 states and talk about the nation's capital. it has been six days since powerful storms fueled by extreme heat zapped trees and knocked dow

still ahead, ben labolt is obama's press secretary and he will join us later this morning and in 20 minutes we'll talk about lobbyists in washington. jack abramoff, remember his scandal, he will join us live, a former lobbyist and spent more than three years in federal prison for a corruption scandal. he believes the health care ruling will open the floodgates for more taxes straight ahead. ahead this morning on "starting point" the nba's long time director of security won't get to guard the u.s. women's team in london. she says it has to do with a basketball coach and her allegations of sexual harassment against him and get real this morning, a lifeguard fired for doing his job and saving a drowning man but he was outside of the ropes. ♪ [ male announcer ] four seats, 4-wheel drive, fully independent suspension. the gator xuv 550 s4. own the off-road. the gator xuv 550 s4. nno matter what you do. when you're living with moderate to severe crohn's disease, there are times it feels like your life... revolves around your symptoms. if you're tired of going around in circles, it may be time to

along with jack abramoff and alice stewart will be our guest and obama campaign press secretary ben labolt thursday, july 5th, and "starting point" begins right now. >> welcome, everybody. "starting point" with breaking news on a whistle blowing website wiki leaks at it begin. this he have begun publishing 2.5 million e-mails. they're described as embarrassing to syria as well as some of hits opponents and the website says the files, quote, shine a light on the inner workings of the syrian government and economy and also reveal how the west and western firms say one thing and do another. we're watching the story for you and will have more details as the details come in. the rest of the day's top stories, right to brooke baldwin with an update on headlines. >> welcome back from the beach. good to see you. good morning, everyone. about 700,000 people waking up to another day without power. look at the map. you see 11 states and talk about the nation's capital. it has been six days since powerful storms fueled by extreme heat zapped trees and knocked down power lines and take a look at this p