Romney demands apology over campaign attack

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney struck back on Friday against attacks over his business record that are pulling him further away from his campaign message that the White House is mishandling the economy.

In a blitz of television interviews, Romney demanded an apology from President Barack Obama for his campaign's assertion that the Republican may have committed a felony by misrepresenting his position at private equity firm Bain Capital.

"I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after 1999," the Republican candidate said.

Romney was responding to reports suggesting he was still listed on Bain's regulatory filings several years after he said he left the company.

The timing is key because between 1999 - when Romney said he left the company he founded - and 2001, Bain was responsible for closing down American firms and shipping jobs overseas.

"It's ridiculous," Romney told Fox News in response to the charge. "And of course it's beneath the dignity of the presidency and of his campaign."

The Republican challenger has appeared flatfooted in beating back Democrats' accusations that he was involved in firing workers and outsourcing US jobs to foreign countries while at Bain Capital.

That period covers a time when Bain ran companies that fell into bankruptcy, as well as moved jobs abroad - issues highlighted by Obama campaign advertisements.

The Obama campaign has accused Romney of lying in his official campaign disclosure forms. Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter suggested that Romney had broken federal law by doing so - an accusation the Romney camp firmly denied.

Romney has slipped in opinion polls ahead of the 6 November election and his campaign added two Washington veterans to its media relations team on Friday after criticism from fellow Republicans for communications missteps.

Romney was booed by a mostly black audience at the NAACP annual convention this week and earlier gave out mixed messages about whether a key part of Obama's healthcare law does or does not create a new tax.

What drew Romney's ire on Friday was a charge from Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter that he might have committed a felony by giving wrong information to the Securities and Exchange Commission about how long he spent at Bain.

Romney told ABC News that Obama "needs to rein in these people who are running out of control."

"He (Obama) sure as heck ought to say that he's sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team," Romney said.

Romney was put on the spot by a Boston Globe newspaper report citing federal documents as showing he was listed as Bain CEO and sole shareholder in the three years to 2002, a time when he says he no longer ran the company.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, travelling with Obama in Virginia, declined comment on Romney's demand for an apology.