A secretly recorded video released Monday shows U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney dismissing supporters of President Barack Obama as Americans who believe they are “victims” entitled to be supported by the federal government.
The video on the website of the liberal magazine Mother Jones shows Mr. Romney speaking to donors at a private fundraising event in May. Mr. Romney told the audience that 47 percent of all voters who back Mr. Obama pay no taxes, but believe “they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.”
He said he was not going to “worry about those people,” because he would never convince them to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
After the video was released Monday, Mr. Romney said his remarks were not “elegantly stated.” He said he was trying to highlight his differences with the president, whom he says believes in “a government-dominated society.” Mr. Romney said that, of course, he wants to help all Americans, and is convinced the president's approach does not do that.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina issued a statement calling the video “shocking,” and criticized Mr. Romney for having “disdainfully written off half the nation.” The president's campaign has portrayed Mr. Romney, a retired multi-millionaire businessman, as out of touch with the real struggles of everyday Americans.
Mother Jones magazine did not identify the person who recorded the video, but says it took place in May at the Florida residence of a wealthy supporter shortly after he earned his party's nomination.
Mr. Romney has begun falling behind Mr. Obama in polling of likely voters across the nation and in several individual states whose electoral votes are critical for each campaign.
Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, spent Monday speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. He said he will work with both parties to enact what he called permanent immigration reform. He accused President Obama of playing politics by enacting a temporary measure that exempts deportation for immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children.
The Republicans and Mr. Romney are trying to build support among Hispanics, a group that President Obama won in 2008 as the Democratic Party candidate.
Mr. Obama used a campaign stop in the key state of Ohio Monday to accuse China of unfairly subsidizing its auto industry. He said the Chinese government's subsidies harm thousands of automobile industry workers in central U.S. states.
