Reid: 'Romney only wants to be president of half the United States'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – who’s clearly relishing the role as Mitt Romney’s top antagonist this campaign season – pulled out all his greatest hits against the GOP presidential candidate in a blistering floor speech Wednesday.

Pivoting off the Romney’s latest comments that 47 percent of Americans are “victims” solely reliant on the federal government, the Reid lobbed a litany of criticisms toward Romney, including his Cayman Islands investments, and he repeated an accusation that Romney did not pay any taxes for over a decade.

“This week, we learned Mitt Romney only wants to be president of half the United States,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “If Mitt Romney were president, he wouldn’t waste time worrying about the 47 percent of Americans who he believes are victims, who Romney believes are unwilling to take personal responsibility.”

“Who are those Americans Mitt Romney disdains as victims and ‘those people?’” Reid continued. “They are not avoiding their tax bills using Cayman Islands tax shelters or Swiss bank accounts, like Mitt Romney.”

Reid noted in his floor speech that people included in the 47 percent who do not pay federal income taxes are active members of the military or middle-income families who benefited from the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit.

“For all we know, Mitt Romney could be one of those who has paid no federal income tax,” Reid said. “We’ll never know since he refused to release his tax returns for the years before he was running for president.”

In a videotape captured during a private fundraiser in Florida, Romney said “there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it” – remarks that have triggered a firestorm in the presidential campaign. The video was released by Mother Jones earlier this week.