In an interview published Monday in USA Today, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney defended his campaign’s newfound attacks on President Barack Obama for allegedly gutting welfare by waiving the program’s work requirement. The ads have been widely panned for their inaccuracy, but Romney stands by them, telling USA Today that he believes the president waived the work requirement to “shore up his base.”
The following is the extended quote, provided to The Huffington Post:
“There’s no question in my mind that the president’s action was calculated to… shore up his base. Weakening the work requirement in welfare is an enormous mistake.”
Romney also said that the joke he told at a Michigan rally on Friday, in which he seemed to make a thinly veiled reference to Obama’s birth certificate, was a “human” and “spontaneous” moment.
