CNN's Soledad O'Brien intensely grilled senior campaign adviser Bay Buchanan on a number of controversial statements made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Leaked videos secretly recorded at a closed-door fundraiser were published on Monday, and show the Republican presidential candidate commenting on President Barack Obama's supporters and those who rely on government support.
"My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," Romney said. Romney was referring to what he called the "roughly 47 percent of Americans who pay no tax."
O'Brien asked Buchanan to clarify what Romney meant by "those people."
"He says that '47 percent of Americans pay no tax.' That's not correct," O'Brien said.
"It's no income tax," Buchanan said. "That, you are correct."
O'Brien continued that a majority of those who pay no income tax do pay sales tax and payroll tax. "It's being described as this myth of the deadbeat generation," O'Brien pressed. "But they're paying money, right?"
The CNN host went on to say that according to New York Times columnist David Brooks, "The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees."
O'Brien wondered, "So essentially, didn't Mitt Romney, in these leaked tapes, really bash his own voters? Those are the people who are voting for Mitt Romney...Aren't the people who he is bashing to these wealthy donors -- these are Republicans...white men with high school diplomas -- these very people were the people who were going to vote for him, and now you have a major problem."
Watch O'Brien grill Buchanan on the comments made by Romney during the fundraiser in the video below. Watch the CNN host grill Buchanan on more controversial comments in the video below.
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