Gingrich said in an interview that there's no discrepancy between his comments during the campaign and his remarks to the JLL annual meeting in 2009. He said private-equity investors like Levy, who see his critique of Bain as an attack against their industry, are "interpreting it wrong."
His campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said the former Georgia congressman takes issue with Romney's work at Bain, not the entire industry.
"Newt isn't going out and attacking capitalism," he said. "What we've pointed out is the character and leadership that Romney made as the head of a company."
Gingrich has cast Romney as an executive more interested in maximizing profits than creating or retaining jobs.
"What I've done is raised questions about the judgment and values of one person who's running for president," Gingrich told reporters in Winnsboro, South Carolina, today. "That should not be confused with critiquing capitalism."
'Real Capitalists'
Speaking to a gathering of business leaders yesterday in Columbia, South Carolina, he characterized the Bain business model as "exploitive" and "not defensible."
"I'm proud of real capitalists," he said. "But not particularly proud of people who go in, leverage the game, borrow the money, leave the debt behind and walk off with all the profits."
In a 28-minute online film released last week, Gingrich supporters described Romney as a financier "more ruthless than Wall Street." The film highlights stories of people who say they lost their jobs after their companies were acquired by Bain.
A Bloomberg News review of the advertisement, called "When Mitt Romney Came to Town," found that it at times stretches the truth and takes some reports out of context or selectively edits them. The film was funded by Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich political action committee.
Compared To Obama