Bob CollinsThe person who tracked down the source of the video of the Mitt Romney fundraiser is Jimmy Carter’s grandson.
James Carter IV told NBC News he encouraged the “source” to release the full tape to Mother Jones magazine, which called attention to it yesterday.
But Carter also confirmed there is a personal side to the backstory of the campaign video: he was especially motivated, he said, because of Romney’s frequent attacks on the presidency of his grandfather, including the GOP candidate’s comparisons to the “weak” foreign policy of Carter and Barack Obama.
“It gets under my skin — mostly the weakness on the foreign policy stuff,” Carter said. “I just think it’s ridiculous. I don’t like criticism of my family.”
Carter said he is currently unemployed and has not been paid for his work by the Obama campaign or any other political organization. What motivated him at first was Romney’s role at Bain Capital and the controversy over whether the GOP candidate as a businessman had invested in companies that outsourced jobs overseas.
On NPR’s Tell Me More program today, David Corn, the Mother Jones political reporter discussed his role in the video.
It didn’t take long for the Obama campaign to turn the video into an online ad.
