In an interview with the Washington Post Mitt Romney says that his much criticized comment that 47 percent of Americans are unable to take personal responsibility was taken out of context.
The remark was made at a fundraiser that was closed to the press in May 2012. One of the fundraisers in attendance recorded Romney's speech and it was posted on the website for Mother Jones in September. When the remarks were first made public Romney said that they were "not elegantly stated." Later on in the campaign Romney would admit that the remarks were "just completely wrong." Never before has he claimed that they were taken out of context, according to the Huffington Post.
Romney told the Washington Post that the comment was made in reference to needing swing voters and was not supposed to be an insult.
"It was saying, 'Look, the Democrats have 47 percent, we've got 45 percent, my job is to get the people in the middle, and I've got to get the people in the middle," Romney said. "They've got a bloc of voters, we've got a bloc of voters, I've got to get the ones in the middle. And I thought that that would be how it would be perceived - as a candidate talking about the process of focusing on the people in the middle who can either vote Republican or Democrat."
When pushed to explain why he said that he was writing off 47 percent of Americans who won't take personal responsibility the former governor of Massachusetts denied that he said that, according to the Washington Post.
"Actually, I didn't say that...That's how it began to be perceived, and so I had to ultimately respond to the perceptions, because perception is reality," Romney said.
In fact, when speaking about the 47 percent of people who are not paying income taxes during that speech Romney said that he will "never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney said at the fundraiser. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to house, to you name it."
Romney acknowledged that the remarks were very damaging to his effort to win the presidency telling the Washington Post, "clearly that was a very damaging quote and hurt my campaign effort."
In what can be seen as a bit of a humorous coincidence Romney finished the 2012 election with 47 percent of the popular vote.
