As anti-Wall Street protests have begun to move from Wall Street to main streets in other cities, the issue has also started to bubble up in the presidential campaign.

Greeting an overflow room of voters Tuesday at a community center in The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, Mitt Romney was asked about the protests, and said that he had spoken to the people involved.

“I think it’s dangerous — this class warfare,” Mr. Romney said.

The quote was reported by CBS and The National Journal’s Sarah Boxer, who was in the room at the time and sent Mr. Romney’s response out on Twitter.

Mr. Romney’s remarks come as the protests have grown in intensity and size recently, with demonstrations spreading to other cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. And later this week, the White House may become a target, with two groups planning to set up an encampment near there.

While the protests have generally been nonviolent, the police in New York arrested 700 people on Saturday after some demonstrators marched on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge.