As the 2012 presidential race draws to the end, more and more reports are leaking out about business owners telling their employees to vote for Mitt Romney or else they may get fired. And now we know why: Mitt Romney told them to.
In June, Romney spoke for a half hour on a conference call with members of the National Federation of Independent Business, a Nashville, Tennessee based lobbying firm, which contributes millions of dollars to Republicans, and has a membership of 350,000 small business owners.
At the end of the call, Romney made a strong plea: “make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections.”
Annie-Rose Strasser at Think Progress notes:
A CEO of a Florida resort company threatened to fire his employees if Obama won. The CEO of a timeshare company did the same. And the famous right-wing Koch brothers warned of “consequences†of not voting for Romney.
In this audio, you can hear Romney say:
I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope — I hope you pass those along to your employees. Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.
Yes, nothing illegal about that.
Relevant portion begins at about 26:47:
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