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. The magazine says the event was a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser at the Boca Raton, Florida, home of Marc Leder, a private equity manager.

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, but is convinced the president's approach does not do that.

On Tuesday, Mother Jones released what it said was another excerpt from Mr. Romney's comments at the Florida event. On the video clip, the Republican presidential nominee says Palestinians have “no interest whatsoever in establishing peace.” He adds, “the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”

The magazine said Mr. Romney was responding to a question from a donor who asked him how the so-called “Palestinian problem” could be solved.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina issued a statement calling the videotaped comments about American who pay no income taxes “shocking,” and criticizing 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.

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.