In an appearance on Jennifer Granholm’s Current TV show, The War Room, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Mitt Romney’s campaign only released the candidate’s tax returns Friday to distract people from Romney’s damaging remarks about lower-income Americans.

“It’s interesting. Not only do they wait until Friday afternoon to do this, but also, what the Romney people want least of all is a continuation of the buzz over the videotape,” Reich said.

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“Romney, to many Americans, is beginning to look like somebody who is not only wealthy and out of touch and privileged, but also quite powerful,” he added.

Earlier in the week, Mother Jones released a secretly taped video of Romney telling wealthy donors that it was, “not his job to worry about” the 47 percent of Americans who don’y pay income taxes. In that same video, Romney also remarks that those people are “dependent” on government and feel like they are entitled to such basic things as health care, food and housing.

“I think basically they want to change the subject,” Reich said. “They don’t want to talk about the tape, they don’t want to talk about Romney’s tax returns.”

The past week was arguably the worst yet for Romney’s campaign, as his team suffered through round after round of bruising attacks over that secret videotape. As Democrats rushed to pile on, even some Republicans quietly distanced themselves from his remarks, including former Virginia Senator George Allen, who is locked in a tight race to reclaim his old seat.

Watch the segment below: