Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney dismissed supporters of US President Barack Obama — almost half of US voters — as people who live off government handouts and do not “care for their lives,” in a potentially damaging video.
The video, taken secretly at a fund-raising event for the former private-equity executive, was the latest setback for his campaign, which is struggling with low poll numbers and reports of infighting.
Romney hastily called a news conference in Costa Mesa, California, to respond to the video. He said his comments were not well stated, but he did not back away from them.
Photo: AFP
The video was shot with a hidden camera as Romney spoke to potential donors at a private event earlier this year. It was posted online on Monday by the liberal magazine Mother Jones.
“There are 47 percent who are with him [Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them,” Romney is heard saying on the video.
He also said the 47 percent did not pay taxes. The video gave the Obama campaign a chance to return to a popular theme — that the multi-millionaire Romney is an out-of-touch elitist.
“It’s not elegantly stated. Let me put it that way,” Romney said in response.
“I’m sure I could state it more clearly and in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that,” he told the news conference in California.
However, Romney stuck by his video-taped remarks, saying it was a message that he would continue to carry in the run-up to the Nov. 6 presidential election.
“Frankly, my discussion about lowering taxes isn’t as attractive to them and therefore I’m not likely to draw them into my campaign as those in the middle,” Romney said. “This is really more about the political process of winning the election and of course I want to help all Americans have a bright and prosperous future and I’m convinced that the president’s approach has not done that and will not do that.”
The video added to Romney’s problems as he tried to retool his campaign message with more specifics on policies after reports of internal disarray.
He has slipped in polls in the past two weeks as the selection of running mate Paul Ryan and the Republican National Convention failed to make much of a mark with voters.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey on Monday taken over the previous four days showed Romney — often painted by rivals as an out-of-touch elitist — trailing Obama by 5 percentage points.
In the new video, Romney said he did not need to concern himself with Obama supporters.
“My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents,” he said to potential donors.
The tape brought back memories of controversial remarks that then-Democratic US presidential candidate Barack Obama made at a fundraiser during his 2008 campaign, when he said that white rural voters “cling to guns or religion.”
On Monday, the Obama campaign tried to take advantage of Romney’s comments.
“It’s shocking that a candidate for president of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement.
“It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation,” he said.
Romney’s campaign said the Republican is concerned about Americans who are poor and unemployed. “Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy,” Gail Gitcho, Romney’s campaign communications director, said in a statement issued in response to a request for comment.
Mother Jones did not say when or where the video was taken to protect the identity of the person who recorded it. It did say Romney’s remarks had been made at some point after he clinched the Republican presidential nomination in April.
In the video, the former Massachusetts governor accused Obama supporters of paying no income taxes.
“These are people who pay no income tax,” he said. “Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.”
Romney has been criticized for not releasing more than two years’ worth of tax returns.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS