‘Victims’ quip seen as own goal for Romney

Mr Romney offered no apologies, conceding the comments were not “elegantly stated” and were “off the cuff”.

The presidential nominee said the remarks showed a contrast between President Barack Obama’s “government-centred society” and his belief in a “free-market approach”.

“Of course, I want to help all Americans, all Americans, have a bright and prosperous future,” Mr Romney told an impromptu news conference.

Mr Obama’s campaign pounced on the video, which was obtained by the magazine Mother Jones and released only hours after Romney’s campaign outlined a new strategy to try to revive a struggling campaign.

The video’s emergence came as advisers to the former Massachusetts governor tried to reassure party leaders and donors about Mr Romney’s strategy amid concerns that the race could be slipping away.

In the video, recorded at a Florida fundraiser in May, Mr Romney is shown saying: “There are 47 per cent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.

“There are 47 per cent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that 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.”

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”.

In a seven-minute news conference before a fundraiser near Los Angeles, Mr Romney did not dispute the authenticity of the hidden-camera footage, but he called for the release of the full video, instead of just the clips posted online. He sought to clarify his remarks but did not apologise when a reporter asked if he was concerned that he may have offended people.

He said: “It’s not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I was speaking off the cuff in response to a question. And I’m sure I could state it more clearly in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that.”

About 46 per cent of Americans owed no federal income tax in 2011, although many of them paid other forms of taxes. More than 16 million elderly Americans avoid federal income taxes solely because of tax breaks that apply only to seniors, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

The video was the latest headache for Mr Romney’s campaign, which has tried to focus attention on a weak economic recovery and make the case that the Republican’s business background would help spur the economy. In recent weeks, it has dealt with the fallout from Clint Eastwood’s rambling conversation with a chair at the Republican convention and Mr Romney’s omission of the war in Afghanistan or thanks to the troops in his convention speech.

The eruption of violence in Egypt and Libya last week prompted Mr Romney to issue a statement assailing the Obama administration before it was known that an American ambassador and three other US citizens had died in Libya, a move that generated criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.