Donald Trump echoes Mitt Romney’s comment about people automatically voting Democrat

Former president donald trump told people attending a Republican National Committee donor retreat in Florida on Saturday that 40% of Americans will automatically vote Democratic because they receive welfare, echoing an observation Mitt Romney done when he ran for president in 2012.

“When you’re a Democrat, you essentially start with 40% because you have public service, you have unions and you have welfare,” Trump said at the retreat, according to The New York Times. “And don’t underestimate well-being. They get welfare to vote, and on top of that, they cheat – they cheat.”

Trump’s comments are similar to something Romney caught on tape saying to wealthy donors at a private fundraiser in 2012. The then-Republican presidential candidate said that because 47% of Americans pay no income taxes, they would automatically vote for the then Democratic president. Barack Obama.

“There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney said at the time in a video obtained by Mother Jones. “Okay, there are 47% who are with him, who depend on the government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that the government has a responsibility to take care of them, who believe that they have the right to health care, food, housing , whatever you want – that’s a right. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. … These are people who don’t pay income tax.”

″[M]My job is not to worry about these people,” he continued. “I will never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and take charge of their lives.”

After Romney’s comments were made public, he released a political ad saying he cares about poor and middle-class families. In 2016, he told CNN that his observations “didn’t come out well.” According to the book “Romney: a reckoning”, a biography of the politician released last year, the 47% video sent him into a deep depression.

Trump’s comments about Americans receiving welfare were just a small part of his 75-minute speech at a donor retreat on Saturday. He spoke about his secret trial and the fact that President Joe Biden’s administration was behind his multiple criminal charges, referring to the Biden administration like the Gestapo while also attacking the prosecutors involved in their cases.

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