CNN’s Peter Hamby says Romney is ‘trying to reframe controversy’

The Romney camp is still repairing the damage from the hidden camera comments Mitt Romney made at a recent fundraiser. He said that nearly half of all Americans consider themselves victims who believe they are entitled to government assistance, and he is not going to worry about “those people.” President Obama responded to the comments in an appearance with David Letterman.

Romney isn’t apologizing for the comments but he clarifies them in an Op-Ed in this morning’s edition of USA Today. His campaign is on the defensive now and CNN Political Reporter Peter Hamby reports live from our Washington Bureau with the latest analysis and poll numbers.

Mitt Romney is firing back with an argument against comments President Obama made in 1998 supporting redistribution of wealth. Romney is “basically trying to reframe this controversy as a fight between two fundamentally different views of government,” Hamby says.

His explanation has still defined the divisions in the Republican Party. “It’s the same split that the GOP’s been dealing with since 1964, to be honest,” Hamby says, “You’ve got the sort of beltway elites  who have been very critical of Mitt Romney versus the sort of grassroots who actually kind of like Romney’s blunt language.”