President Obama: "My expectations is if you want to be president, you've got to work for everybody, not just for some" (Video courtesy of Worldwide Pants)
US President Barack Obama has rebuked Republican rival Mitt Romney, saying that anyone seeking to be president needs to work for all Americans.
Mr Obama told chat show host David Letterman said Mr Romney was wrong to describe 47% of Americans as "victims".
Earlier, Mr Romney defended his remarks after secretly filmed video of a speech to donors became public.
He told Fox News he knew those "dependent on government" would not vote for him in November's election.
Mr Romney also decried the notion of government "redistribution", calling it an "entirely foreign concept".
More leaked video emerged on Tuesday, showing Mr Romney saying Palestinians do not want peace in the Middle East.
The full video was published on Tuesday by liberal investigative magazine Mother Jones.
In Tuesday's interview, Mr Romney stood by his comments that the nearly half of Americans who do not pay income tax support President Barack Obama and would never vote for him, saying his statement was "about the campaign".
"I'm talking about a perspective of individuals who are not likely to support me," he said. "Those that are dependent on government and those that think government's job is to redistribute, I'm not going to get them," Mr Romney said.
Who pays US income tax?
The US federal government runs off two kinds of taxes: payroll taxes, which fund benefits such as Social Security, and income taxes, which largely fund the rest of the federal budget.
In 2011, the Tax Policy Center studied the tax liability of US households:
- 53.6% paid income taxes, 46.4% did not
- 28.3% paid payroll taxes but not income taxes
- 10.3% were elderly and retired and were not taxed on Social Security benefits
- 6.9% did not pay any tax with household incomes of less than $20,000 (£12,300)
The majority of those who pay payroll but not income tax do so because of tax benefits for the elderly, families with children and low-income earners.
Mr Romney says he expects Mr Obama to receive about half of the vote in the November election because of these voters.
The real problem, he added, was that so many people were not eligible to pay income tax because they had fallen into poverty.
'Chicago dirty bomb'A second clip emerged on Tuesday from the same event, with Mr Romney saying the Palestinians are "committed to Israel's destruction".
He told donors the Middle East would "remain an unsolved problem... and we kick the ball down the field".
"The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," he says, adding that "the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish".
But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters news agency that Mr Romney was wrong to accuse the Palestinians of not seeking peace.
"Start Quote
End QuoteAt the very time when the opinion polls suggests that he needs to be aggressively fighting for every inch of ground, he has lost the microphone"
"Only those who want to maintain the Israeli occupation will claim the Palestinians are not interested in peace," he said.
In another clip, the former Massachusetts governor is shown discussing Iran's nuclear programme, and warning that America itself could come under attack.
"If I were Iran - a crazed fanatic - I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, 'Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb'."
Not 'elegantly stated'Mr Romney's initial response to the videos said his remarks were not "elegantly stated", but did not retract them.
Extract of Mitt Romney secret recording: "They'll vote for this president no matter what"
The Republican candidate was shown saying that the 47% of Americans who back the president do not pay income tax and would never vote for Mr Romney.
"There are 47% who are with him [Mr Obama], 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," he said.
Mr Romney said in the video that his role "is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
The video clips provided to Mother Jones are said to have been filmed at a $50,000 (£31,000) per head fundraiser at some point after Mr Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee.
The videos bookended a difficult 24 hours for the Romney campaign. On Sunday, a lengthy Politico story detailed apparent divisions and indecision within the campaign.
Campaign advisers told the US media on Monday that Mr Romney would speak more specifically about his budget plans and tax policy.
19 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19644448#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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