President Barack Obama told CNN’s David Letterman on Tuesday that a U.S. president should work for every American, whether or not they voted for him. The president’s comments came in the wake of the release of a video showing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney suggesting that Mr. Obama’s voters were freeloaders who believed that they were entitled to all the help they received from the government.
President Barack Obama spoke about Mitt Romney's controversial remarks with CNN's David Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater
in New York on Sept. 18, 2012. Photo: Getty.
Mr. Obama pointed out that, although he did not exactly know what Mr. Romney was alluding to during his May speech, a president had a duty to look after all Americans.
“One of the things I learned as president is you represent the entire country. If you want to be president, you have to work for everyone,” Mr. Obama told The Late Show on Tuesday. He also referred to the 2008 presidential election and pointed out that he had not excluded any Americans during his first term in the White House.
“When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for [Arizona Sen.] John McCain. They didn’t vote for me and what I said on election night was: ‘Even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices. And I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president,” Mr. Obama stated at the time.
The program’s host did remind the president that, back in 2008, he himself caused some controversy when he told donors that some Americans would “cling to their guns and religion.” Mr. Obama admitted that he had made a gaffe but stressed that he had immediately apologized, unlike Mr. Romney who has stood by his comments and simply acknowledged that he had not been particularly sensitive when he expressed his point of view.
“It [was] not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I was speaking off the cuff in response to a question,” he said during a hastily arranged news conference on Monday night.
Mr. Obama also said that he believed Americans needed to help one another irrespective of their background and wealth.
“We’ve got some obligations to each other, and there’s nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand so that that single mom’s kid, even after all the work she’s done, can afford to go to college,” the president told Mr. Letterman.
The Republicans seem equally divided over their presidential nominee’s remarks.
