Thanks to a breaking story by Mother Jones yesterday, secret video of a private fundraiser revealed Mitt Romney telling a group of millionaire donors what he really feels about the voters who support President Obama. Here’s Romney’s direct quote (we really can’t leave any of it out), caught on video:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. 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 health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
Not knowing he was being filmed, of course, Romney continued:
“[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
While Mitt Romney’s campaign is hoping that half of America forgets these horrendous, offensive statements that Romney made about them, that’ll be hard to do with the never-ending list of negative headlines nation-wide:
AP: “Already scrambling to steady a struggling campaign, Republican Mitt Romney confronted a new headache Monday.”
Bloomberg’s Josh Barro: “This is an utter disaster for Romney.”
NY Times’ Paul Krugman: “The idea that half of Americans are just grifters is grotesque. If this is real, it’s very, very ugly.”
Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart: “What the Republican presidential nominee said is reprehensible and unbecoming a man who claims to want to be president of all Americans.”
Slate’s Dave Weigel: “This is Tea Party rhetoric churned into something new and stupid.”
TPM’s Josh Marshall: “It’s rare when the impact of some gaffe or embarrassment or revelation isn’t overstated on first blush. But this strikes me as possibly that rare exception. This tape strikes me as absolutely devastating.”
Although this feels like a slam-dunk for President Obama, we still have nearly 2 months left on this campaign, and anything can happen.
Click here and join us in our efforts to re-elect Pres Obama, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and Justice Yvette McGee Brown. We must keep these strong advocates in office to continue their fight for the middle class.
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