Adviser claims Romney 'retired retroactively' from Bain

A senior adviser for Mitt Romney says that President Barack Obama will "say or do anything" to keep his job, including accusing the presumptive Republican presidential candidate of being in charge of Bain Capital when they helped send American jobs to China and other countries.

Ed Gillespie on Sunday lashed out at the Obama campaign for suggesting that Romney either lied to voters or broke the law when he said he retired from Bain in 1999, even though Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents listed him as the "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president" until 2002.

"He's not a felon," Gillespie insisted to CNN's Candy Crowley. "That's what this campaign on the Obama side was reduced to. And it's sad to see -- and I think Americans now know -- you've got these baseless charges on moving jobs overseas, which independent fact checkers have said are not true; they're, indeed, a lie. Then a completely reckless and unfounded accusation of criminal activity."

"And so it's sad to see -- we now know this president will say or do anything to keep the highest office in the land, even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land."

Crowley asked Gillespie how he could explain a 1999 news release from Bain that announced Romney had taken "a part-time leave of absence" from the company, but did not say that he had retired.

"He took a leave of absence from his company to go save the Olympics," Gillespie explained. "There may have been thought at the time that it could be part time. It was not part time. The Olympics was in a shambles. There was corruption."

"He took a leave of absence and in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result."

Until a series of last-minute interviews on Friday of last week, Romney had stood by the claim that he "retired" from Bain in 1999.

Watch this video from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast July 15, 2012.

(h/t: Think Progress)