Post date: Sep 18, 2012 10:4:30 PM
On Tuesday (September 18), the Romney campaign struggled to manage the political fallout from the secret video that showed Romney dismissing President Barack Obama's supporters as victims who are too dependent on government.
But Romney adviser Kevin Madden said the firestorm over the video would not distract from the campaign's economic focus.
Republican Mitt Romney struggles to steady his reeling White House campaign after a secretly recorded video showed him dismissing President Barack Obama's supporters as victims who are too dependent on government.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 18, 2012) (NBC) - The video from a closed-door fundraiser in Florida in May sparked a new wave of criticism of Mitt Romney's gaffe-plagued presidential campaign and raised fresh questions about his ability to come from behind in the polls and win in November.
"What matters to voters is whether or not we are going to have the answers that they need about how we are going to put the economy back on track, put the country going back in the right direction, so I think that's where our focus remains," Madden said.
In the video, the first part of which was published on Monday (September 17) by the liberal Mother Jones magazine, Romney tells donors that 47 percent of Americans will back Obama no matter what and "my job is not to worry about those people."
He said they do not pay income taxes and are people "who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them."
The Obama campaign targeted Romney in a new ad that included parts of the controversial video.
The ad, released on Tuesday (September 18), shows people on the street reacting negatively to Romney's comments.
Romney's comments about the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay taxes and are dependent on government were not a new theme for Republicans, and it was a largely accurate figure.
About 46 percent of U.S. households paid no federal income tax in 2011, according to the bipartisan Tax Policy Center, although almost two-thirds of those paid an employment tax to support the Social Security and Medicare programs.
In most cases, it is elderly and poor households that do not pay federal income tax, the center said. About half of those who pay no tax are allowed to do so because their incomes are too low.