The Obama campaign continued to pile on Mitt Romney in a new Web video released Tuesday that hits Romney over an undercover video that surfaced of him telling a group of fundraisers that “47 percent” of voters are “dependent on government.”
“Recently, Mitt Romney held a high dollar fundraiser behind closed doors,” text from the ad reads. “We asked Americans what they thought about what he said to his donors.”
The ad then shows people on the street listening and reacting to the remarks.
“I actually feel sick to my stomach,” one woman says.
“As a president, if you try to separate my demographics, separate by classes, you know, you’re not really a president,” says a man in the video.
Democrats are already fundraising off the Romney video, posted by liberal magazine
Mother Jones late Monday, which shows the GOP presidential nominee telling the small group of fundraisers that 47 percent of the nation is firmly with Obama.
He also said these voters see themselves as “victims” and that his job as a candidate is not to worry about them and instead focus on independent voters who could swing the election.
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney says. “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.”
Later Monday, Romney held an impromptu press conference where he stuck by his message but said it was “not elegantly stated” and spoken “off the cuff.”
Romney campaign spokesperson Amanda Henneberg told The Hill in an email that Obama's policies are leading to "more and more government."
“In the Obama economy, American families have suffered from chronic unemployment, increased poverty, and falling incomes," she said. "At every turn, as the economic pain Americans feel increases, the President has proposed failed policies that have led to more and more government, and greater and greater debt. Mitt Romney's plan for a stronger middle class will create 12 million new jobs and move Americans off of government dependency and into greater prosperity.”
