Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick defended himself on Thursday for working as a managing director at Bain Capital, the private investment firm co-founded by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).
“Yes, I work at the place that was demonized in the 2012 presidential election,” Patrick told MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, before she interrupted him and put forth that it was his own party which excoriated the renowned private equity firm.
“I’m about to tell you — you may remember because I was co-chair of that campaign. I didn’t buy into it then and I still don’t,” he continued. “There is a place for private equity in the private economy. There is a place for business in our lives.”
Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, widely criticized Romney over his financial ties while he was running for the presidency in 2012. While running for his second-term, Obama portrayed the investment company as a corrupt corporate raider that was destroying American jobs. Patrick, a close ally of Obama’s and a campaign surrogate, made waves when he broke with the campaign and notably referred to Bain as “a perfectly fine company.”
“They have a role in the private economy, and I’ve got a lot of friends there … on both sides of the aisle,” Patrick said at the time. “I think the Bain strategy has been distorted in some of the public discussions.”
Nearly three years later, the former Massachusetts governor joined the firm in 2015 to launch and head up a platform focused on “social impact investing.” He resigned from the position last week after he formally announced that he was jumping into the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field and running for president.
“It is also true that capitalism generally has a lot to answer for — that is so and we need to be able to confront that and that is exactly the work that I have been doing at Bain Capital,” Patrick told Wallace. “But I’ve done that same work in other business settings before.”
Patrick, who is the latest candidate to join the presidential race, is seemingly facing an uphill battle to win the nomination in a party that has consistently been pivoting farther left of the aisle. He brushed off criticism that his background doesn’t align with the party’s far-left base.
“I love that the party has moved to the left. I love that we are the party of the woke. I believe that we also have to be the party of the still waking,” Patrick said. “And I have always conducted my personal life, and my business life, and my life as a civil rights lawyer, my life as an advocate, my life as a mediator, and as a governor that way. And why? It’s not because I’m trying to smooth over issues — I’m interested in getting at root causes.”
Patrick subsequently touted Massachusetts residents’ 98% health insurance coverage during his tenure as governor of the state. While he was tasked with overseeing the statewide health care reform that provided near-universal insurance through state-level subsidies and individual mandates, it was actually Romney who helped develop the program and later signed it into law.