Paul Ryan: Obama Speaking to People ‘As If They Are Victims’

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- In the leaked video that has made headlines all week, Mitt Romney calls Obama supporters “victims.”  Romney's running mate says it’s actually the president who's speaking to people “as if they are victims.”

“And a sad chapter in all of this the president seems to be going around the country speaking to people as if they are victims of circumstances outside of their control, as if they’re stuck in some station in life or fixed in some class. Whatever you call that, that’s not America, that’s not the American idea,” Rep. Paul Ryan said at a fundraiser at Washington, D.C.'s famed Mayflower Hotel Thursday evening.

Videos released over the last few days that have dominated the news cycle show Mitt Romney at a $50,000-per-person Boca Raton, Fla., fundraiser, chastising the president’s supporters as people who pay no income tax and see themselves as “victims” dependent on government.

The vice presidential nominee, who returned to vote in the House earlier in the day, also commented on polls that have shown his ticket's popularity down in recent days.

“Polls are going to go this way and that way, pundits are going to go this way and that way, noise is going to be this,” said Ryan. “But at the end of the day if we do our jobs right, and we will, the country will have a really clear choice.”

Battleground state polls show Romney and Ryan down against the president, but national polls have Romney and Obama tied. Thursday’s Gallup tracking poll had the two tickets tied with 47 percent each.

About 225 donors paid between $1,000 and $10,000 to attend the event in the Mayflower's Grand Ballroom. Those paying $10,000 were part of roundtable policy discussions with Ryan. Many were Washington, D.C. lobbyists there to discuss the various topics, which included energy, education and manufacturing.

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