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Former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney says comments he made during his campaign about 47% of Americans, ones that angered many and may have hurt his election chances, “didn’t come out right.”

“I was very upset,” he told CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger in an interview.

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“There were a number of times that I said things that didn’t come out right.”

Romney pointed out that contrary to campaigns from 20 to 30 years ago, everything candidates say now is recorded.

“With a good opposition campaign, they grab it, they blow it up, maybe they take it a bit out of context, maybe they don’t but, it obviously, is paraded in a way that you hadn’t intended,” he said.

At a private fundraiser in May 2012, Romney told a group of Republicans that he didn’t care about the votes of 47% of Americans.

“There are 47% of people who are with [Obama], who are dependent on government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, you-name-it,” Romney said.

A barman from the catering company working at the fundraiser filmed the remarks and leaked them to Mother Jones magazine, causing an uproar among Republicans and Democrats alike.

“That’s just the nature of politics and you have to get over it and live with it,” Romney said in the interview.

National Post