Anita Perry, the wife of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said she sympathized with the unemployed Friday because her son resigned from his job at Deutsche Bank to campaign for his father, reports CNN.
"He resigned his job two weeks ago because he can't go out and campaign with his father because of SEC regulations," she said at a Pendleton, S.C. diner, in response to a middle-aged voter who lost his six-figure job and now works as a handyman. "My son lost his job because of this administration," she added. CNN reports that the SEC recently adopted stricter rules for investment advisers undertaking political activity.
However, Thursday she said that he eagerly resigned. She recalled when her husband brought the family together to discuss his run for president last May. "So, our son Griffin Perry is 28. He loves politics, and he just couldn't wait. He said, 'Dad, I'm in! I'm in! I'll do whatever you need me to do. I'll resign my job. I'll do what you need me to do,'" she said in a speech at North Greenville University.
ABC News reported that the 28-year old recently quit his job to start an independent consulting firm and to focus on campaigning for his father. He lives in Dallas with his wife, who works as an attorney.
Anita Perry has been campaigning for her husband in South Carolina this week. She spoke Thursday about how opponents had "brutalized" the campaign. "We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party," she said. "So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith," she added, possibly referring to questions in recent days over Rev. Robert Jeffress, who endorsed Perry and has called Mormonism "a cult." She also compared his decision to run for president to Biblical stories of Moses and Gideon.
Rick Perry responded to her comments, saying he stood by her. "You know, family members always take these campaigns more substantially personal than the candidate," he said Friday morning on CNN.
Perry gave a speech Friday morning on how he could create jobs as president. He said, "When it comes to energy, the president would kill domestic jobs through aggressive regulations while I would unleash 1.2 million American jobs through safe-and-aggressive energy exploration at home."
