On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer invited CNBC Mad Money
host Jim Cramer to elaborate on calling Mitt Romney a "job destroyer" [1]
as the head of Bain Capital on Sunday's Meet the Press: "You speaking
as a pundit, or do you have some experience here?" Cramer declared: "He
was talking about rationalizing the workforce, making it so that the
companies were more efficient. Matt, these were code words back then.
Code words for firing people."
Like
on Sunday, Cramer spoke about his interest in working for Bain out of
college: "I went to hear the presentation when I was at Harvard Law,
trying to figure out whether to work for them or somebody else. They
were talking about rationalizing the workforce....And by the way, it was
viewed as being very positive. It wasn't something that we thought was
like, 'Wow, that would be really bad if you're running for president.'
It was like, 'Wow, that could be really good if I work there.'"
Lauer followed up by wondering: "Was it smart business or was it a
problem with capitalism?" Cramer acknowledged: "It was smart business.
This was the way to make money if you worked for Bain. That kind of was
why you interviewed with them."
Here is a transcript of the May 22 exchange:
7:47AM ET
(...)
MATT LAUER: You made headlines over the weekend on a different subject.
You weighed in on Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital. Something that's
been being discussed a lot now. Whether it's a liability or an asset in
his run for the presidency. You said, "Romney's known as a job
destroyer, not a job creator." You speaking as a pundit, or do you have
some experience here?
JIM CRAMER: Look, I went to hear the presentation when I was at Harvard
Law, trying to figure out whether to work for them or somebody else.
They were talking about rationalizing the workforce.
LAUER: They were talking or he was talking?
CRAMER: Bain – well, he was there.
LAUER: Okay.
CRAMER: He was talking about rationalizing the workforce, making it so
that the companies were more efficient. Matt, these were code words back
then. Code words for firing people. And by the way, it was viewed as
being very positive. It wasn't something that we thought was like, "Wow,
that would be really bad if you're running for president." It was like,
"Wow, that could be really good if I work there."
LAUER: Was it smart business or was it a problem with capitalism?
CRAMER: It was smart business. This was the way to make money if you
worked for Bain. That kind of was why you interviewed with them.
LAUER: Jim Cramer. Alright, we'll leave it at that. Appreciate it very
much. You can catch this guy on Mad Money week nights at 6:00 and 11:00
Eastern Time on CNBC.
-- Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here [2] to follow Kyle Drennen on Twitter.