As news organizations uncover more and more information about Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, the Romney campaign has continuously shifted its own goalposts, first standing by its claim that Romney stepped down from Bain in 1999, then settling on the argument that Romney “retroactively” retired in 1999 despite remaining CEO through 2002.
On Wednesday, a new report from the Associated Press reveals that the former Massachusetts governor made several trips to Boston to meet with partners and other key employees at Bain Capital’s headquarters while running the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The details contradict Romney’s claim that he did not interact with the company after leaving in February of 1999. From the piece:
Several associates now say that Romney made repeated trips between Salt Lake and Boston, where he met at times with his former partners, mostly to discuss his severance from the firm. The Boston Globe reported last week that Romney also met with his Bain partners at a 15th anniversary celebration in Palm Beach, Fla., in early 1999.
“I was in Salt Lake City for three straight years. I don’t recall even coming back once to go to a Bain or management meeting. We were, I was out there running the Olympics and it was a full time job, I can tell you that,” Romney told CBS’ Jan Crawford earlier this month in an effort to defend his role with the company.
But one former senior Bain partner told the AP “that once Romney had accepted the Olympics position, he would ‘make suggestions but not decisions.’”