President Obama: Mitt Romney cares about poverty? âThatâs great â¦ Letâs do something about it.â
The mocker-in-chief is back, and once again his target was Mitt Romney. President Barack Obama broadly took swipes at Republicans on Thursday night for âstarting to sound pretty Democraticâ in their messaging about poverty and the middle class â and he took a thinly veiled swipe at his former GOP sparring partner from the 2012 presidential campaign. Story Continued Below âEven though their policies havenât quite caught up yet, their rhetoric is starting to sound pretty Democratic,â Obama said of the Republicans during a House Democratic retreat. âWe have a former presidential candidate on the other side and [who is] suddenly deeply concerned about poverty.Thatâs great, letâs go. Letâs do something about it.â The former Massachusetts governor, who has been flirting with mounting another presidential campaign, made poverty a theme Wednesday as he criticized Hillary Clinton over middle class policies and jobs during a speech at Mississippi State University. Romney said the U.S. needs to ârestore opportunity, particularly for the middle classâ and âlift people out of povertyâ â topics heâs hinted would be at the cornerstone of his third presidential run, if he were to enter the race. âI also met folks who had been in poverty from generation to generation. These we have to help escape the tragedy and the trap of chronic generational poverty,â Romney said at the time.