DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement on Romney surrogate Ted Nugent's offensive comments this weekend about President Obama and our nation, which can be read here:

"Mitt Romney surrogate Ted Nugent made offensive comments about President Obama and November’s elections this weekend that are despicable, deplorable and completely beyond the pale. He called the Administration 'vile,' 'evil' and 'America-hating,' and said much worse. Yet what have we heard from Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, who should be outraged that someone representing them is using language like this to make a political point? Absolutely nothing.

"Romney’s surrogates should know better than to rally the troops with outrageous rhetoric that is unacceptable in our political debate. Mitt Romney must condemn Nugent’s violent and hateful rhetoric immediately, as it has no place in our political discourse or this campaign."

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the results of the Republican primaries in Alabama and Mississippi:

"Tonight’s results show exactly what we’ve been seeing throughout the race for the Republican nomination: Mitt Romney simply cannot close the deal with Republican primary voters, who handed him losses in both Alabama and Mississippi tonight.

"It wasn’t for a lack of trying on Romney’s part – he had a huge spending advantage over his rivals, which he used to carpet-bomb them with negative ads. He did everything he could to pander to the far right wing of his party with extreme and out-of-touch positions like vowing to get rid of Planned Parenthood, as he did today. Romney even took the unbelievable step of playing to Southern stereotypes by faking a Southern accent, declaring his affinity for grits and using 'y’all' every chance he got.

And even after all this, Mitt Romney could not get the job done. Republican primary voters tonight rejected Romney for the same reason independents have abandoned him in droves: he has no core values and he'll do or say anything to win. With tonight’s double defeat, Mitt Romney saw what has already become a long slog to the GOP nomination become even more difficult."

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement today on the results of the GOP caucus in Washington:

“Mitt Romney may have managed another victory today but his efforts to pander his way to the GOP nomination continue to undermine key support he will need should he become the nominee. This week, Romney proved once again that he will say anything to get elected—even reversing his position within hours on making sure women have access to critical health care so he can score a few points with the extreme Tea Party base. Thank goodness the Blunt-Rubio amendment failed—but those like Romney who supported this regressive piece of legislation, which would allow bosses to decide what kind of health care their female employees can access, should know that millions of women were watching and will not forget this assault on women’s health.

“Given Romney’s failure at job creation both as a governor and corporate raider with Bain Capital, it’s not surprising he’d rather engage in social warfare with America’s women instead of putting forth a serious plan to create jobs. Romney’s budget does nothing to help the middle class and cuts investments in innovation, research, and community colleges—all necessary tools for building a stronger economy. With proposals like that, it’s no wonder Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 in job creation while Romney was governor, and manufacturing jobs were lost at twice the national rate.

"No serious plan to create jobs and undermining women’s health care? No wonder Romney is quickly becoming the most unpopular potential nominee in history.”

This evening, Mitt Romney is hosting a policy-conference-slash-fundraiser where lobbyists and executives for Wall Street, big oil, health insurance, and more can meet with him and his policy advisers for $10,000 per person.

In other words, Romney is selling influence to the highest bidders.

In response Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz joined a group of concerned citizens from organizations who had gathered outside the policy conference to call out Romney.

She told reporters who had gathered that in her many years of elected office, she'd never seen anyone tie together policymaking and fundraising so tightly—and should concern all Americans that a potential president would so shamelessly sell his policy positions to the special interests.

"I'm sure it's no coincidence Mitt Romney has committed to repealing Wall Street reform while selling tickets to this conference to Wall Street executives and lobbyists for $10,000. That's why I'm here today with our supporters to call Romney out on his web of Washington influence that he has consistently created. Not only is it hypocritical. It's outrageous, and it demonstrates that Romney is the typical Washington-style politician he criticizes. It's something we're not going to allow him to get away with.

"It's unbelievable that Romney would have a policy conference and tie policy decisions to contributions, particularly contributions in the amount of $10,000 and more. That's the kind of special-interest influence we need to rid of in politics—but that Romney clearly would continue and expand.

"His campaign is essentially saying, come to this policy conference. Give us $10,000, and we will make sure we give you the policy you are buying at this event. That's unacceptable."

Want to see just how interconnected Romney's Washington web of influence is? Check out this infographic.

This evening, Mitt Romney is hosting a policy-conference-slash-fundraiser where lobbyists and executives for Wall Street, big oil, health insurance, and more can meet with him and his policy advisers for $10,000 per person.

In other words, Romney is selling influence to the highest bidders.

In response, Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz joined a group of concerned citizens who had gathered outside the policy conference to call out Romney.

She told reporters who had gathered that in her many years of elected office, she'd never seen anyone tie together policymaking and fundraising so tightly—and should concern all Americans that a potential president would so shamelessly sell his policy positions to the special interests.

"I'm sure it's no coincidence Mitt Romney has committed to repealing Wall Street reform while selling tickets to this conference to Wall Street executives and lobbyists for $10,000. That's why I'm here today with our supporters to call Romney out on his web of Washington influence that he has consistently created. Not only is it hypocritical. It's outrageous, and it demonstrates that Romney is the typical Washington-style politician he criticizes. It's something we're not going to allow him to get away with.

"It's unbelievable that Romney would have a policy conference and tie policy decisions to contributions, particularly contributions in the amount of $10,000 and more. That's the kind of special-interest influence we need to rid of in politics—but that Romney clearly would continue and expand.

"His campaign is essentially saying, come to this policy conference. Give us $10,000, and we will make sure we give you the policy you are buying at this event. That's unacceptable."

Want to see just how interconnected Romney's Washington web of influence is? Check out this infographic.

Following reports today that the limited tax returns released by Mitt Romney this week have serious discrepancies with financial disclosure forms he filed as a presidential candidate, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

“When Mitt Romney decided earlier this week to release limited and insufficient tax returns – just his 2010 returns and estimates of his 2011 taxes – it raised serious questions about what he might be trying to hide from voters. Now, just days later, we have begun to learn the answer: Romney’s campaign failed to disclose embarrassing information that should have been made public as part of his personal financial statements required of all presidential candidates. We know this because there are glaring discrepancies between Romney’s 2010 tax return and his personal financial disclosures – those disclosures do not show the secret Swiss bank account that one of Romney’s advisors closed because he worried it might cause political problems. And there are 22 other funds – eleven of them located in notorious tax havens like Bermuda, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands – which Romney failed to disclose.

“No one will soon forget that it was the very existence of Romney’s personal financial disclosure forms that he used as an excuse not to release his tax returns. That's because he claimed that everything there was to know about his assets was already known. Clearly, that was not the case. And of course it’s all the more curious that the omissions on Romney’s disclosure forms just happened to be those that would be the most embarrassing and could cause him the most political damage in a campaign.

“Now, if this is what we found from just one full year of returns from Mitt Romney, what else has he failed to disclose? We don’t know the answer to that, because Romney refuses to follow the precedent set by previous presidential candidates including his own father, who released 12 years of tax returns. But voters deserve to know the truth, and that is why I am calling on Mitt Romney to come clean by releasing his returns for multiple years and by immediately releasing those returns for every year he filed personal financial disclosure forms, as well as the years he was CEO of Bain Capital, since he's based his candidacy on his private sector experience. Voters deserve to see what else Mitt Romney has been trying to hide.”