Romney draws fire for comment on poor

EAGAN, Minn. – Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, confident after his Florida primary victory, ended up inviting criticism Wednesday when he said he’s “not concerned about the very poor” because they have an “ample safety net.”

Democrats and Republicans alike – including opponent Newt Gingrich – pounced, and the GOP front-runner quickly sought to explain his remarks.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Romney told reporters on his campaign plane when asked about the comments. “No, no, no. You’ve got to take the whole sentence, all right, it’s mostly the same.” He said his remark was consistent with his theme throughout the race, adding: “My energy is going to be devoted to helping middle-income people.”

Despite that explanation, Romney’s comments quickly became an immediate distraction from his message that he’s more conservative than Gingrich and from the double-digit thumping the former House speaker sustained in Florida.

Gingrich raised Romney’s remark at his first event since losing the Florida primary. He read Romney’s quotes aloud and they were met with boos from the crowd at a brewery in Reno, Nev.

“I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other,” Gingrich said. “I am running to be the president of all the American people and I am concerned about all the American people.”

As the day began, Romney told CNN from Florida: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. 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.”

“You can focus on the very poor, that’s not my focus,” he said.

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign was quick to criticize.

“So much for ‘we’re all in this together,’ ” tweeted Obama campaign manager Jim Messina.

Some conservative pundits also labeled it a gaffe and said it was evidence Romney wasn’t prepared to run against Obama.

“The issue here is not that Romney is right or wrong, but that he is handing choice sound bites to the Democrats to make him as unlikeable as he made Newt Gingrich,” said Erick Erickson on the conservative RedState blog.

With criticism mounting, Romney flew to Minnesota and addressed a rally before heading to Nevada. He also boasted in flight about his “huge” Florida victory.

But Romney immediately was forced to clarify his comments about the poor.

Asked whether his words might strike some as odd, Romney said: “We will hear from the Democrat party the plight of the poor, and there’s no question it’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor.” Romney added that he’s more worried about the unemployed, people living on Social Security and those struggling to send their kids to college.

“We have a very ample safety net and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. But we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor,” Romney said. “But the middle-income Americans, they’re the folks that are really struggling right now.”

Romney has broached the subject of the poor repeatedly on the campaign trail but until Wednesday had been more careful in his choice of words.