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'Mother Jones' Journalist: Video Not An Attempt To 'Catch Mitt Romney'

The Mother Jones journalist behind the release of a surreptitiously shot fundraising video says the source "did not go there looking to catch Mitt Romney in the act."

David Corn, the magazine's Washington bureau chief, tells NPR's Michel Martinon Tell Me More:

"The person was at the fundraiser and he was just kind of curious about what Mitt Romney would say and he thought that it'd be worthwhile setting up a camera ... and ended up with material that the source was actually stunned by."

Corn refused to reveal the identity of the person who secretly created the video at a private fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla., on May 17. But the liberal Mother Jones released the full unedited videoof the fundraiser Tuesday afternoon.

Also Tuesday, Romney spoke to Fox's Neil Cavuto about his statements, captured on the video, that he would never get the vote of 47 percent of Americans who — Romney said — pay no taxes and consider themselves victims:

"I'm talking about a perspective of individuals who I'm not likely to get to support me. I recognize that those people who are not paying income tax are going to say, 'Gosh, this provision that Mitt keeps talking about, lowering income taxes,' that's not going to be real attractive to them and those that are dependent upon government and those that think government's job is to redistribute, I'm not going to get them. I know there's a divide in the country about that view."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Padmananda Rama
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