During a press conference at the NATO summit in Chicago on Monday, President Barack Obama responded to remarks that Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker made on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday regarding attacks on private equity, including Bain Capital.
Obama said this was not a “distraction” and that he had to look at the entire economy “from top-to-bottom.”
“Well first of all, I think Cory Booker is an outstanding mayor and doing great work in Newark and obviously helping to turn that city around. I think it is important to recognize this issue is not a quote, ‘distraction.’ This is part of the debate that we’re going to be having in this election campaign about how do we create an economy where everybody, from top-to-bottom, folks on Wall Street and folks on Main Street, have a shot at success? If they are working hard and they are acting responsibly, they are able to live out the American dream.”
Obama reiterated that point and said that the debate would be what the presidential election would ultimately be about.
“[T]his is not a distraction,” he said. “This is what the campaign is going to be about — is what is a strategy for us, to move this country forward, in a way where everyone can succeed? That means I have to think about those workers in that video just as much as I’m thinking about folks would have been much more successful.”