the president's press secretary on the firing line today over the obama super-pac ad blaming mitt romney death of a steelworker's wife. the chief white house correspondent ed henry tonight on the denial and the backlas backlash. >> we do not control the ad. >> the week ended where it started, aiding refusing to say whether obama condemns a democratic ad. >> i don't think romney understands what he has done to people's lives. >> which accuses republican romney of being responsible for the cancer death of the wife of a laid off steelworker. >> do you think at that podium it's fair for someone to suggest that a candidate's actions led to someone's death? >> i appreciate the effort to get me to play political pundit. but that is not my job. it's not -- i do not have any role in third party groups that produce the ads. >> except top white house aide david plouffe raised money super pac priorities usa run by former white house aide bill burton. the obama campaign in chicago back pedaling on the original claim it knew nothing about steelworker joe soptic story, the top romney advisor today ripp

it's a super pac ad. baloney. bob: what about the republican ads that are discaseful. >> andrea: i'm offended as a women. >> kimberly: sexist, racist, in poor taste. >> bob: i'll bring in a real republican ad. that makes that look like -- >> eric: okay. >> greg: slightly humorous. >> kimberly: we can discuss it in the break. >> greg: i don't want to. i want to discuss it now. >> bob: you have a my grain. >> kimberly: coming up, the usa is leading the medal count at the olympics but believe it or not, some americans are denouncing our athletes' success. we'll tell you who that is when we come back. ♪ ♪ this is the plan that revolves around you. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of shareable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. now add a tablet for only $10 monthly access. >>> good afternoon. it'm john roberts in for bret baier in washington. the big story today, d

instead, the campaign story continuing to get all the attention is a pro-obama super pac ad that suggests governor romney may be responsible for a woman's death. here's part of the ad. >> and that's when they found the cancer, and by then it was stage iv. there was nothing they could do for her. and she passed away in 22 days. i do not think mitt romney realizes what he's done to anyone. and i, furthermore, do not think mitt romney is concerned. shannon: critics are calling the attack ad despicable, deplorable and blatantly false, but so far the obama campaign is refusing to denounce it or ask that it be withdrawn. earlier today governor romney took to the radio accusing president obama of overstepping the bounds of acceptable campaign speech while also alluding to the president's 2008 campaign. >> whatever happened to a campaign of hope and change -- >> yeah. >> i thought he was a new kind of politician. shannon: chief white house correspondent ed henry is traveling with the president live in pueblo, colorado. hello, ed. >> reporter: good to see you, shannon. you can hear the president r

now jay carney denying any complicity in the pro-obama super-pac ads.tes of all sides. now obama's turn. >> john: what will the effect be on the obama campaign. tarnish his reputation? >> it does. but in terms of the vote which all they care about, winning or losing, i think urn fortunately, it isn't a great statement of our politics i think it helps him. it takes the oxygen out of any romney argument, about obama stewardship, about his ideology, his ideas. what have we talked about all week? it's been in the press all week. those of us on the inside who look at this carefully know it's scurrilous. however, up with of the things that people only casualty tune in here hearing romney, steelworker, laid off, person dying. that is exactly what the white house wants. that is the irony of this. and what makes it more repulsive. like harry reid/mccarthy charge about the tax returns. it kept the tax story going for a week. since reid isn't running for the presidency, it's romney. all we hear about romney's taxes and did romney kill a woman as a result of closin

in this case it is a democratic super pac that put this ad together. while chicago insists there is no coordinate, we note that the have pac is run by bill burton a former white house aide, and the president himself, back in february, blessed this super pac and told his supporters that they could donate money to it because he was originally against the have pac's. so, david axelrod and others, top aides and advisors, have actually raised money for this super pac. >>stuart: have ads like this, backfired in the past? we go to our presidential historian. jane, welcome to the program. i can see how an ad would backfire if, (a), the candidate is defeated because of it organization or, (b), the public is revolted by it. what do you think is the case with the cancer ad? >>guest: well, it is definitely something that the public can be revolted by. it is unprecedented to compare a presidential candidate and leading him to the death of a woman by cancer. it is over-the-top. thatthat revolts the american pe and disgusts them. it has the potential to back fire. >>s

that are associated with that. >> bill burton used to work with the obama campaign. >> that is super pac adat i think of the ad there is no question that the ad raises facts such as mitt romney when he was at bain capital, bankrupt the companies, laid-off workers, cut their benefits and made millions of dollars in profits. that ad points out that there are consequences to making decisions like that that impacted peoples lives in a significant way. >> sean: joining me now to break down the democratic delusions is liz cheney. this campaign has hit a new low. here is wasserman schultz is lying. they knew all about his story. then bill burton, not a democratic party ad? come on. >> she got so tangled up. she had to come out and say, okay, actually i do realize that the people who run priorities u.s.a. are democrats. you know part of me makes me hope they keep doing it. american people are sick and tired of gutter politics. we have to deal with the real issues and real challenges. we've got a debt crisis the president hasn't dealt with for three years. the more that the president president's tea

ad with the same guy. i mean, then the super pac run its. so now we have a question, what does obama know, with everybody in his campaign -- hang on. they won't condemn harry reid and they won't condemn this ad. >> no, this is coming directly from obam a. he hasn't been in politics that long. that's why he's the perfect democrat to run. he didn't have a record. he has a record now. why does it keep coming? it is not always his aides doing it, his democratic minority leader in the senate doing tsometimes it's the media doing it for him. but somehow, always around obam avicious, slanderous, slashing attacks on his opponents-- >>> like last time. you wrote about this in a recent column. this is not the first time -- this is his m.o.? >> unsealing divorce records. this is his m.o., personal attacks. now that he can't mention anything he has done for four years, this will be the ugliest campaign-- >>> it already is. >> we cannot have a romney spokesman coming up with idiotic responses? >> what would the response be from ann coulter? >> i just gave

this is the world where super pacs run these ads, and 86% of the ads run in this campaign by super pacs supposedly independent, are negative. it is the most visible manifestation of a very disparate and depressing campaign where neither side -- has really told the country what it wants to do in the next four years with policy. >> because you put that stat out there, 86% of super pac ads. but if you look at the past week, 94% of the ads run have been negative. sponsored by anybody. 5% positive. is that the worst it's perhaps ever been? >> without a doubt. and part of it is that we think of the campaign as starting -- after labor day as some people have said, the campaign started a long time ago. we're near the home stretch. but this is a race where people use the negative ads, the public say they don't like it, but they actually work. but it's very unfortunate, it can't help public confidence in government and you've got to do some of it, but i would like to hear in a positive way from the candidates what they want to do. >> quick and final word from john, they do work. highly negative r

shannon: republicans responding to a super pac ad essentially blaming romney's business practices forwife. the president's team claims they didn't know anything about the details of the attack on romney. >> this woman died in 2006 and this ad accuses mitt romney of practically killing her. is that the kind of rhetoric you want to hear in a campaign especially from the president of the united states, especially a president who ran four years ago and raising the level of rhetoric? shannon: the ad inseason what is governor romney is responsible for a woman's death from cancer. the romney got slammed for releasing an ad on welfare that they say is inaccurate. we also saw the obama campaign ask people to fish for dirt on vp running mates. where is this presidential race going next? the former chairwoman of the republican party of virginia. well come you both. cory, this president said we were going to elevate the tone of washington. but this campaign is particularly nasty. do you think it's worse or par for the course? >> i think we are in a period that's clearly the preseason prior to the

is fox condemning the syne pac ads in support of mitt romney?m line is mitt romney as ceo of bain capital profited from bankrupting company. cutting benefits. firing workers and made money anyway and there are consequences. that has an impact on people's lives. and the person in that ad wanted to talk about what he thought the impact on his family was. >> you mentioned indig nation. i wanted to get your sense of something here. my colleague george stephanopoulos last week talked to you about hair reid's accusations did not pay taxes for ten years. he went so far as to talk about it on the floor of the senate. back in april you were accused of favoritism by an anonymous source to which you said let me put it up here on the screen i don't know what they are talking about. the famous anonymous sources that never have the nerve to actually say what they are saying make accusations on the record. there was indig nation there. where is the indignation now about senator reid quoting anonymous sources? >> it it is another tune to talk about the secrecy,

ads that are done by priorities usa. all right. priorities usa is the super pac that paid for this ad. er pacs are not allowed by law to coordinate with campaigns. and bill burton, head of priorities usa, denies any coordination. >> the campaign is doing what the campaign is doing. but to suggest that we would be mixing those two i think is a distortion of what the campaign finance laws are and what would possibly even happen here. >> okay. here's the rub, though. bill burton and the president are tight. bill burton served as president obama's national press secretary during his first presidential campaign and then when he won as deputy press secretary in the obama white house. a job that he left to start priorities usa. bill burton knows the president's ethics very well and it is fair to hold him up to this standard. any ad bill burton runs, he knows the president would personally support. the president cannot hyde behind a super pac on an ad as ugly as this one. when that super pac is run by a long-time friend and deputy. let me start with this. the law prohibits technically the coord

mitt romney finally responded to a pro-obama super pac ad. the ad features former steelworker joe soptic. it tells joe's story after he was laid off from a plant closed by bain capital. romney called the ad inaccurate. >> you know, in the past when people pointed out that something was inaccurate, why, campaigns either pulled the ad, they were embarrassed. today they just blast ahead. >> really? mitt romney wants campaigns to pull inaccurate ads? someone should ask mitt romney why he didn't pull this campaign ad. president obama is quoting john mccain, but the romney camp edits it to make it sound like the president is talking about himself. >> it's going to take a new direction. if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. >> or what about -- what about the ad accusing president obama of not visiting israel, even though only two presidents ever visited israel during his first term. >> over the past four years, president obama has traveled all over the world. he's traveled all over the middle east, yet he hasn't found time to vis

. >> it is a super pac ad. >> what i think. adthat there is no question that the adraces facts such as that mitt romney when he was ceo of bain capital bank ruptted companis and laidd off workers and cut their benefits. there are consequences to making decisions like that. >> this idea of the time line being such that the inferance, and it does not appear to be the case. it was six years laterr. >> it is interesting that there is no indignation example and where is it on the other side. super pacings in support of the rom romm's campaign. >> they never inferred someone died. >> they inferred that bark obama is american or birth certificate legitimate. there are so many questions that question his patriotism. where is the same indignation. is fox condemning the super pac ads in support of the mitt romney in the way of this ad. bottom line mitt romney profited from bankrupting companis and cutting their benefits and firing workers and made money anyway . consequences and that impacts people's lifes . the person in that adwanted t

later events matter less. >> especially with early voting in the super pac ads, a new dynamic. much machine aggressive ads. people will see the same ads more times. gwen: they're calling each other liars on a daily basis. the general election in the fall is going to seem like -- why not? thank you, everybody. thank you very much. i'm sorry that we have to leave you a few moments early tonight so you can give a little love to your local pbs station, which in turn support us. but our coverage continues online in our "washington week" webcast extra. want to know how much our panelists are looking forward to the political conventions? a lot, really. find us at pbs.org/"washington week" then keep up with daily developments on the pbs news hour. especially monday, when i'll have an interview with mitt romney and we'll see you again next week here on "washington week." good night. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. >> to connect our forces to when -- what they need when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answ

. >> it's a priorities usa super-pac ad. >> you deny they're democrats?ical affiliation of folks who are associated with that super-pac. >> you used to work for the white house, worked the obama campaign in 2008. >> that is a super-pac ad. not affiliated with the campaign or the party. >> kimberly: hello. earth to planet clueless. she was forced to take back the comments today. but the damage had already been done. >> eric: here is why. if you listen to sound bite, john roberts asked her do you have any doubt that priorities usa is democrat and she looked at him and said i have no doubt, i have no idea whether they're democrats or not. everyone said are you kidding me? she is clearly lying. clearly lying. when she is called out on tv -- >> kimberly: eric, eric. loose relationship with the truth. >> eric: bill burton worked in white house. raised money -- >> dana: she actually never heard of him. then you have other problems. >> kimberly: that is like bob with the spice girls. >> bob: i know the spice girls. it is a mistake to say that. she tried to walk i

. >> first on a factually bogus romney ad, now a factually bogus ad from an obama super pac ad.features a laid off steelworker. >> when mitt romney and bain closed the plant, i lost my health care. and my family lost their health care. and a short time after that, my wife became ill. i don't know how long she was sick, and i think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance. and then one day she became ill and i took her up to the jackson county hospital and that's when they found the cancer. by then we were stage 4. there was nothing they could do for her. she passed away in 22 days. >> that's obviously a very sad story. as heart wrenching the loss of a job and death of a spouse obviously is, virtually nothing else about the story fits the time line or the facts. mr. romney was still on the books as being ceo when the steel mill shut down. he had left two years before to run the olympics. you could argue he still had a hand in running how the company was handled. but he said his ad became ill a short time after he lost his health care. it tur

check out this obama super pac ad. listen. >> when mitt romney and bayne closed the plant, i lost my health care and my family lost their health care and a shorted time after that, my wife became ill. i don't know she was sick and i think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew we couldn't afford the insurance and then one day, she became ill and i took her up to the jackson county hospital and admitted her for pneumonia and that is when they found the cancer and by then, it was stage four. there was nothing they could do for her. >> so this is basically implying that mitt romney's business practices somehow caused this woman's death. truth or dare or outrageous, omar? >> i mean, look. all of these things are really silly claims. i don't really want to get into the details of it because in some ways that is feeding into this game to tit for tat where the republican and democratic parties play with each other to keep the american people divided and not the way we should be going forward. whatever the case may be,

the term obama care. >> i actually like the name because -- because i do care. >> a new ad from a pro-obama super pac is drawing criticism from the romney campaign and independent fact checkers. >> i don't think mitt romney understands what he's done to people's lives by closing the plant. >> the ad features former steelworker talking about his wife's death. the implication is that she died because she no longer had health insurance after bain capital shut down his company. >> after that my wife became ill. >> the washington post gives it four pinocchios, the highest rating for a false ad. >> the obama campaign says it had nothing to do with the commercial and doesn't know the specifics of soptic's passing. >> this latest ad by the pro-obama super pac is part of a $20 million campaign. but romney has actually been outraising the president in campaign cash in the last three month. terrell, we have three months of campaign ads to go. >> here we go. manuel gallegus joining us from washington. thank you very much. >>> there's been a leadership shakeup at the largest breast cancer charity foundation. susa

last week it was the super pac ad of blaming mitt romney woman's death and that we analyzed. equal timee giving from the right to. this one accusing barack obama of ruining the welfare system. to have trouble translating all of this. >> jokes as side, the complaints campaign to add up fast, the latest over this and on welfare. workama quietly ended for welfare. he would not have to worker train for a job. t pants on fire saying the obama administration workng to make welfare to efforts more successful, not and did them. the waivers would applyo individually evaluated pilot programs, they are not proposing national change to welfare law. today obama struck back with their own had it. ad.he ad --their own >> you will see more of tv advertisements then you have ever seen in your life. >> how can you go out there and people things that are not true? inoe biden's comments today virginia. he will let the big banks write to their own rules. they will put you back in chains. >> those comments almost instantly prompted this e-mail the romney campaign reference to putting chains is not

mitt romney finally responded to a pro-obama super pac ad. steelworker joe soptic. it tells joe's story after he was laid off from a plant closed by bain capital. romney called the ad inaccurate. >> you know, in the past when people pointed out that something was inaccurate, why, campaigns either pulled the ad, they were embarrassed. today they just blast ahead. >> really? mitt romney wants campaigns to pull inaccurate ads? someone should ask mitt romney why he didn't pull this campaign ad. president obama is quo

mitt romney is fighting back against a pro-obama super pac ad featuring steelworker joe sopic. today his campaign is hitting back at the president with an ad of its own. >> what does it say about a president's character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain? >> the romney camp can try and attack the president but can't deny the facts. the decision by bain capital to lay off folks like joe sopic had consequences. in his case, he lost his health insurance and his cancer-stricken wife didn't have a fighting chance. joe soptic is not alone. when you don't have hit and run, you're playing russian roulette with your future, no question about it. that's what americans grab right now. you don't have to take my word for it. just ask romney campaign spokeswoman andrea saul. >> to that point, you know, if people had been in massachusetts under governor romney's health care plan, they would have had health care. >> republican need to ask themselves a fundamental question -- does obama care save lives? last night on this program. more than contribut

. >> there is a big difference between a pac ad and mitt romney saying i approve this ad. the i approve this ad portion is backing up a falsehood about welfare and the waiver program which is totally out to lunch. michael, why do republicans always run back to issues like welfare and as paul mentioned, the racial end of it? >> well, ed, both you and brother waldman have been talking the nexus between wealth and middle class. when you get weak as the romney campaign is, it has no arguments to make substantively against the president, it creates out of thin air all of these kinds of allegations that appeal to the racial subtextt that can be effectively appealed to without explicitly taking responsibility for it. it's plausibility deniability. here they're trying to suggest again as newt gingrich himself said, the president was the food stamp president, even the food stamp president accuser is saying that this is going too far. mitt romney is doing what he has always done, denying his own history here, the obama campaign is brilliantly shown when he was governor, he was for t