As Mitt Romney's campaign faces criticism for airing a misleading ad about the auto industry, which suggests that Chrysler is moving production of Jeeps from the U.S. to China, President Barack Obama's reelection campaign has responded with an ad of its own.
"When the auto industry faced collapse, Mitt Romney turned his back," the narrator says in the response ad. "Even the conservative Detroit News criticized Romney for his 'wrong-headedness' on the bailout."
"And now, after Romney's false claim of Jeep outsourcing to China, Chrysler itself has refuted Romney's lie," he continues. "The truth? Jeep is adding jobs in Ohio."
The Obama ad will air in Ohio, where the Romney campaign quietly released its ad on Sunday in a last-minute bid to undo the damage caused by the Republican presidential nominee's opposition to the auto industry bailout -- regarded by many as the issue that could tip the must-win state in the president's favor on Election Day.
In its release, the Obama campaign referred to Romney's ad as a "desperate attempt to re-write history." The Romney campaign has stood by the ad, despite numerous fact-checks and complaints from the national press.
The ad closes with a clip of Romney saying "Let Detroit go bankrupt," which was in reference to an op ed he wrote by the same name suggesting a managed bankruptcy approach to the auto bailout. The sound bite is sandwiched between the narrator's closing argument for Ohioans: "Mitt Romney on Ohio jobs? Wrong then ... dishonest now."
Amanda Henneberg, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, attempted to turn the tables on the Obama campaign by calling the response ad "desperate."
"It appears the Obama campaign is less concerned with engaging in a meaningful conversation about President Obama’s failed policies and more concerned with arguing against facts about their record they dislike," Henneberg said in an email. "The American people will see their desperate arguments for what they are.”
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