Here's the raw video today of Mitt Romney at Solyndra slamming President Obama, the stimulus, and a "serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team."
Here's what Romney said:
Two years ago President Obama was here to tout this building and this business as a symbol of the success of his stimulus. Well you can see that's it a symbol of something very different today. It's a symbol not of success but of failure. It's also a symbol of a serious conflict of interest. An independent inspector general looked at this investment and concluded the administration had steered money to friends and family, to campaign contributors. This building, this half-billion taxpayer investment, represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team.
Romney went on to claim that the Solyndra loan was an example of "heads and his cronies win, tails and the taxpayers lose."
The Solyndra loan has certainly been found to be problematic. But Romney's claim that an inspector general concluded that Obama "steered money to friends and family," well, that isn't true.
In 2009, Solyndra was given a $535 million loan guarantee under a Dept of Energy program created by the stimulus bill. In May, 2010, President Obama visited the firm and held it up as an example of the kind of green-energy company the administration was trying to cultivate. But in August of 2011, the firm laid off about 1,100 workers and filed for bankruptcy, providing Republicans with ready-made talking points against some favorite targets: Obama, renewable energy, the stimulus bill, and government involvement in business in general.