Carney lambasts Romney for ‘desperate efforts’ on Obama video

White House press secretary Jay Carney lambasted the Romney campaign for making “desperate efforts” to change the subject after the Republican’s team released a 1998 video in which Obama voices support for some redistribution of wealth.

Carney said the video released by the Romney campaign came on the heels of a “very bad day or a very bad week.”

{mosads}“In circumstances like that there are efforts made, sometimes desperate efforts made, to change the subject,” Carney said during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. “The charge based on this 14-year-old video sounds very familiar to one that was tried and failed in 2008.”

Romney’s campaign directed reporters to the Obama video the day after leaked footage of Romney speaking in May at a campaign fundraiser was published by the liberal media organization Mother Jones. In the video, Romney said 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax and are dependent on the government for support. His remarks came under fire from Democrats and some Republicans.

In the 1998 video taken at a Loyola University event, Carney said Obama was making an argument for a “more efficient, more effective government, specifically citing city government agencies that he did not believe were working effectively.”

“The president believes that we need a government that works efficiently and effectively,” he said.

In the video, Obama says “the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that
pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain
level, to make sure everybody’s got a shot.”

Asked later if he was calling the Romney campaign “desperate,” Carney saying he was speaking as a “keen” observer of politics, adding that “we might be witnessing that now, but I leave that up to experts.”