Shock jock Howard Stern’s greatest moments seem to be when he riffs on politics, and the DJ was pulling no punches when he told his listeners not only is he not voting for Mitt Romney, but he feels not entirely sure Romney shouldn’t be behind bars.
Howard Stern is no stranger to politics, having run for governor of New York back in the early to mid 90s. But the New York-based DJ struck out at Romney for his business practices in a lengthy rant during which he slammed the GOP candidate for financial dealings Stern says are shady and in his opinion, borderline criminal.
In his rant, Stern leaned heavily on a recent and in-depth piece penned by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi, titled “ Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital .” In the piece, Taibbi (briefly referred to erroneously by Stern as “Mike Taibbi”) details the leveraged buyout business and some business dealings in which Bain engaged in recent years.
The piece itself is an excellent read, and Taibbi’s novelist-cum-financial-reporter style makes even the driest economic journalism read like a mystery tale. Stern, who ran as a Libertarian back in the 90s, emphasizes that he has no quarrel with the GOP in general and there are “some Republicans that are good.”
Regardless of your party affiliation, Stern says, you should be wary of leveraged buyouts — which are explained more deeply in Taibbi’s piece. But, Stern explains, he feels Romney’s business acumen is a weak selling point:
“This is a guy running for President who says he’s a great businessman and that he knows how to create jobs…He was such a monster there … To me, he’s a demon. How could this guy have any compassion? How could this guy really care about this country? … This new scam, leverage buyouts, it doesn’t produce a product! It takes money and puts it into other people’s hands … If this is a guy who is fundamentally out for himself and not altruistic and want to help other people? How could a guy like that be President? … This was just an industry of moving money around…It reminds me of, like, a bank robbery.”
You can watch Stern’s full anti-Romney rant below, but fair warning: very harsh language is used in the start of the clip. Do not play with children in the room.