How many times has Obama’s re-election team used & lied about Joe Soptic’s story?

by Sara J.

This morning on radio, Glenn played the scathing pro-Obama ad from “Priorities USA,” accusing Mitt Romney of being kind of responsible for the death of the wife of a steel worker who was laid off by Bain Capital.

Watch the ad below:



”I don’t think Mitt Romney realizes what he has done by closing the plant.  I don’t think he realizes that people’s lives completely changed. When the Bain Capital closed my family lost healthcare.  And a short time after that my wife became ill.  I don’t know how long she was sick.  Maybe she didn’t know we couldn’t afford the insurance.  And then one day she became ill and I it can her to the Jackson County healthcare.  And by that time it was stage 4.  She passed away in 22 days. I don’t think Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone.  Furthermore I don’t think Romney is concerned.” says the former steel worker, Joe Soptic, in the ad.

As tragic and sad as the story about Soptic’s wife is, Romney had left Bain Capital seven years before this happened.
 On top of that, after Soptic was laid off, his wife still had access to health insurance through her own job.

But the lies don’t end there.

Soptic also fails to mention that after Bain Capital bought out the steel company he was working for, they also offered to buy him out.

If they offered to buy him out, why is Soptic so upset?

His pension was cut. 

Soptic is apparently no stranger to the “anti-Bain” campaign tactics that have been used throughout the course of Obama’s re-election campaign. According to Charlie Spiering of the Washington Examiner while discussing the Bain buyout he clarifies that his 401k was not affected but he lost $400 a month from his pension. But in a January 2012 Reuters story, Soptic reportedly said that he only lost $283 per month from his pension.

Here is a clip of the Democracy Now segment:

All of that aside, the biggest problem with this ad isn’t that Joe Soptic is lying, it’s that the Obama re-election team is.

After the timeline of Soptic’s story was exposed, causing the PAC to receive some well-deserved scrutiny, the Obama team claimed to have had no knowledge of his story. According to the Examiner, that is an out-in-out lie.

Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told CNN, “I don’t know the facts about when Mr. Soptic’s wife got sick or the facts about his health insurance.”

Robert Gibbs echoed a similar statement saying, “We don’t have any knowledge of the story of the family.”

Unfortunately, according to policymic.com, Soptic was on a conference call with Stephanie Cutter on May 4th of this year.

Conference call:

Moelane.com reports:


“The audio is from Guy Benson; it’s from a May 2012 conference call where Mr. Soptic recounted his story – without mentioning the details that Romney wasn’t with Bain at the time of the layoff; that his wife still had healthcare until she lost her job, years later; and that five years passed between M’. Soptic’s layoff and Mrs. Soptic’s  cancer diagnosis – and Stephanie Cutter was not only on the call.  She introduced Joe Soptic, then wrapped up his testimony.  And as to any coordination… Politico notes that Joe Soptic is apparently wearing the same shirt for both the Obama for America and the Priorities USA campaign ads.”

In addition to that, Buzzfeed reported on Thursday that the Obama campaign used Soptic’s story in a slideshow posted online earlier this year. The slideshow also failed to mention that Romney was not at Bain Capital during this time.

While there may not be enough evidence to claim that the Obama team coordinated with ‘Priorities USA,’ they certainly lied about Soptic’s story repeatedly. And accusations of breaking PAC regulations and a push for an FEC investigation was enough to scare Stephanie Cutter away from her schedule appearance on  ABC’s ‘This Week.’

So, just add these to the list of baseless smear tactics Team Obama is willing to use to win this election. Will they be able to stoop lower than lying about and using the death of a laid off steel worker’s wife? 

Let’s hope not, but we won’t hold our breath.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, Mssr Soptic was wearing the same shirt ? I wonder, was it was wash and wear polyester? Or, had it been ironed?

    Nope, nothing to see here folks, please move along.

  • new2la

    I just don’t know how these people are able to sleep at night! If it we’re me, I would have an ailing ulcer.

  • Anonymous

    Slander pure and simple

  • http://twitter.com/thinkpad30 Bob Compton

    In all likelihood, Soptic did both ads at the same time. Notice that the hardhat he wore in Obama’s ad is on the mantle in the background, and I believe that is the same room in which he did Obama’s ad. Face it – Obama and team make whale poop look like a floatation device.

  • http://twitter.com/3catsnthebarn wanda smith

    This man makes me sick. How dare him sell out his dead wife for political reasons. Does he really believe having insurance determines whether you survive cancer. My sister had insurance and was only 34 years old with two small children when she was found out she had stage 4 colon cancer. Who do I blame for her death? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/andersongya Gary Anderson

    Clearly, Soptic is a shameless, surrogate for Obama engaged in partisan politics. Moreover, it seems Soptic is content to smudge the facts. In short, the radical, liberal, left is steeped in inflammatory, hypocrisy designed to fabricate the truth in an effort to hoodwink the public.

  • http://twitter.com/ScottBeard3 Scott Beard

    Is there NOTHING too low for the Dem’s to stoop to….Can’t the supporters of this party see how disgraceful their leaders are? I know, if I supported a candidate, or party, and I saw them doing things like I see the Dem’s doing, I would find another party in a hurry…So, as disgusting as it is that the leaders of the Democrat Party are lying about their opponent, the followers are just as guilty for not taking a stand, and insisting they stop this, OR leave the party….

  • Anonymous

    This President is nothing but a Chicago thug, using the most odious lies against a honorable man like Romney. We are back to the former Soviet Union when everyone got $200 a month and no one should be an entrepreneur, no one was smart according to Obama. If I believe tha tmarriage is between a man and woman then perhaps I will nto get a mortgage or cannot start a business. It’s fascism. How can the american people be so naive? 

  • Anonymous

    Low, low, low.  Mrs. Soptic’s memory has been stained by the man who should have been her other half.  It makes me sick.

  • greywolfrs

    And the hits just keep coming. The funny part of this is all the left wing morons that buy this shit hook, line and sinker. Where is sticky chin or vacuumhead?

  • Anonymous

    Hate to digress but can’t find an appropriate place to comment on this issue. The real argument to gay marriage from my perspsective is WHOSE GOIN TO PAY FOR IT?
    Right sounds wierd but the Federal gov’t gives tax breaks to married couples so if gay marriage becomes the law of the land many more will get a tax break. Given that we borrow 43 cents (that’s an old number I think it needs an upgrade at this point) whose goin to pay for gay marriage?
    Without the tax break from the Gov’t I am in favor of gay marriage. Makes me a strange conservative I know but if all things are equal tax wise I don’t have the religious perspective to ban gay unions and marriages.

  • Anonymous

    No surprise. I’m expecting the democratic campaign to try to pull off some sort of big wag the dog event before the election. Anyone want to bet on what they will come up with?

  • Anonymous

    What exactly does this line have to do with Gay Marriage? It’s about Mr. Soptic and the Democrats using the death of his wife six or seven years after Romney left Bain Capital. So in a bankruptcy he lost $400 a month from his union pension, he should shut up and be grateful. Look at the cities and counties going bankrupt and all the union pensions are being wiped out. At least he still gets something. Also this whole story forgets to tell how china and other foreign nations were dumping cheap steel into America. 100s maybe 1000s of steel companies went belly up during this period. Romney and Bain Capital had nothing to do with him losing his job, it was the stupidity of trade Imbalance that cost him his job. Every body is afraid to kick china in the a**. I say let’s get some body who knows business and get it on with china and a few others. Gay Marriage? Dude I don’t care if you want to marry your boyfriend but stop trying to bring the subject into a totally different topic. By the way, my name is David Green and I am from Preston Idaho. FANTASTIC fireside talk the other night Glenn. AWESOME!! HEHE nobody knows what I am talking about.