The middle class 'have been most badly hurt during the Obama years,' Romney said. 'Very poor' not a concern for Mitt

Mitt Romney said Wednesday he’s “not concerned about the very poor.”

Romney told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien during a morning interview after his Florida primary win that his focus is on the middle class — and not on the “very poor.”


“I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there,” he said. “If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich — they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.”

O’Brien jumped in, asking him to clarify his statement that he’s not concerned with the very poor. “I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say, ‘That sounds odd,’” she said.

“Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad,” Romney replied. “I said, I’m not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, then I will repair it.”

“But my campaign is focused on middle-income Americans,” he added. “My campaign — you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich. That’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus.”

Romney said he is open to talking about whether the “ample safety net” for the poor — such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing vouchers — needs to be strengthened or fixed.

But, he said, the middle class “are the people that have been most badly hurt during the Obama years.”

Romney addressed his controversial comment later Wednesday, telling reporters on his campaign plane that his statement was taken out of context.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I — no no,” he said. “You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different. I’ve said throughout the campaign my focus, my concern, my energy is gonna be devoted to helping middle-income people, all right?”

Romney said he is “concerned about all Americans” before reiterating his statement that middle-income families are the focus of his campaign.

“We have a safety net for the poor in, and if there are holes in it, I will work to repair that. And if there are people that are falling through the cracks I want to fix that. Wealthy people are doing fine. But my focus in the campaign is on middle-income people,” he said. “Of course I’m concerned about all Americans — poor, wealthy, middle class, but the focus of my effort will be on middle-income families who I think have been most hurt by the Obama economy.”

Romney added he is “sure” there are holes in the safety net and that “finding those places is one of the things that is the responsibility of government.”

“We do have a very ample safety net in America, with Medicaid, housing vouchers, food stamps, earned income tax credit. We have a number of ways of helping the poor. And yet my focus and the area that I think is the greatest challenge that the country faces right now is not, is not to focus our effort on how we help the poor as much as to focus our effort on how to help the middle class in America, and get more people in the middle class and get people out of being poor and becoming middle income,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh commented on the situation on his radio show Wednesday, noting that two of Romney’s now famous lines — “I like firing people” and “I’m not concerned about the very poor” — leave the Republican candidate open to attacks.

“Both of them, if they’re stand-alones and taken out of context, are big problems — and they indicate a problem. Taken in context — which isn’t going to happen with the Drive-By Media. Taken in context, it’s understandable. But I even have a problem with this in context,” Limbaugh said. “‘I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.’ The safety net is one of the biggest cultural problems we’ve got! We had better be worried about it just like we had better get angry over Obamacare. Obamacare is worth getting mad about. Mitt said that it wasn’t. This biz, ‘I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there?’”

“Right, the safety net is contributing to the destruction of their humanity and their futures! Everybody knows what he’s trying to say but he didn’t say it and he makes himself a target with this stuff. He comes across as the prototypical rich Republican. And it’s gonna make it harder and harder and harder and harder to go after Obama because this turns around on him,” he added.

Reid Epstein contributed to this report.