On Monday night, Mitt Romney held a late night news conference controversial remarks that were secretly recorded at a private fundraiser back in may. The hidden camera tape which was leaked to the liberal magazine Mother Jones and posted on you-tube shows the candidate arguing that nearly half of Americans will vote for President Barack Obama because they rely on government support. Adding to the "entitlement" argument, Romney says, "my job is not to worry about those people.”

On the tape - Romney also jokes about wishing he were "Latino" and talks about a Chinese factory his former firm purchased.

CNN contributor Margaret Hoover says, "Mitt Romney clearly misspoke here." Hoover, a former White House appointee for the Bush administration says the GOP nominee was most likely trying to appeal to Republicans and took information he received from an economic briefing and "then somehow conflated it with his campaign strategy which has turned into a play to the base strategy."

Democratic analyst Richard Socarides disagrees, saying "the big problem for Governor Romney this morning is that this whole episode reinforces beliefs that are starting to set in about him at a very crucial point in the campaign. That is that he's not ready to be president. That he says these kind of inappropriate things."

In his press conference Monday night, the GOP nominee took three questions from pool reporters regarding the secretly recorded video. Standing by his main message, Romney said his controversial comments were "off the cuff" and "not elegantly stated."

Responding to Romney's joke about wishing he were Latino, Hoover says, "I'm actually very concerned about the Latino vote." "You know what would be great? Is not if [Romney] were born to Mexican parents - but if he spoke a little bit of Spanish and was going to the Latino communities and actually talking about how unemployment under President Obama is actually two points higher in Hispanic communities," adds Hoover.

On Monday night, Mitt Romney held a late night news conference where he took three questions from pool reporters regarding the release of a secretly recorded video. The footage, taped with a hidden camera during a private fund-raiser in May shows the candidate arguing that nearly half of Americans will vote for President Barack Obama because they rely on government support. Romney also made apparent jokes about wishing he had Latino heritage, and talks about a Chinese factory his former firm purchased.

CNN Political Director Mark Preston says "certainly in the 24-hour news cycle [Romney's comments] are devastating right now." Preston adds that the Romney campaign is very concerned because they put "their candidate out last night to try to address it and it was a very tortured explanation."

In his press conference Monday night, the GOP nominee said his statements caught on tape were "off the cuff" and could have been "more clearly" stated, adding that he was trying to point out the differences between the two campaigns.

Preston says, "This is not something the Romney campaign wants to deal with, with only 49 days before Election Day."

The video which was originally released on left-leaning news websites: The Huffington Post was altered dramatically to mask the location and date of the fund-raiser. The person who is responsible for the video has requested to remain anonymous according to the Huffington Post for "professional reasons and to avoid a lawsuit." However, author of the Mother Jones article, David Corn, said the event took place May 17 in Boca Raton, Florida, at the home of Sun Capital executive Marc Leder.

CNN's Mark Preston further explains the potential damage the newly leaked video may cause the Romney campaign as Election Day nears.