A senior adviser to Mitt Romney's campaign said Tuesday that a video that shows Mitt Romney speaking at a behind-closed-doors fundraiser represented a "bump in the road," but the governor did not intend to "bash" the 47 percent of Americans he described as "dependent upon government" and believing "they are victims."
"First of all, we're not bashing them," Romney adviser Bay Buchanan told CNN. "He was analyzing saying certain people are with [President] Barack [Obama]. Certain people we have. Certain people are in the middle. and that's who we're going to appeal to."
The video, released Monday by the liberal magazine Mother Jones, was surreptitiously recorded at a closed-door fundraiser at the Boca Raton, Fla., home of private equity banker Marc Leder.
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney is shown saying. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it."
The GOP presidential nominee goes on to say his "job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
But while the Obama campaign has said the comments demonstrate Romney's "disgust and disdain for half our fellow Americans," Buchanan said he was simply "talking politics."
"He's analyzing the voter base," Buchanan said. " 'How do I reach my 50 point-plus-one vote?' And when you do that, and I tell you I haven't met a candidate who doesn't, I always recommend they don't, but they always seem to like to be that political analyst — what he's saying is there are people out there who don't pay taxes, unfortunately; they're in a position where they're dependent on government, and those individuals are — those Americans are voting for Barack Obama. They're in his backyard."
But Buchanan insisted that as president, Romney would be "extremely concerned" about the poor and the elderly who represent a large majority of those who do not pay federal income taxes.
"His whole policy is designed to help those people get moved back into the middle class or get into the middle class if they haven't been there before," Buchanan said.
The senior Romney adviser also defended Romney for having joked of his father, who was born in Mexico, "Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this."
"It's kind of a joke that's been going back and forth," Buchanan said. "But the key is, you look at Barack Obama, black Americans are extremely proud to have him as president of the United States. One of their own, if you like. And they vote overwhelmingly, 90-some percent. And so the idea is, 'Hey, maybe I could get a higher percentage of Hispanics if I could claim that.' And it's a joke. That's it. We all should be laughing and not be too concerned about this."
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