Former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean criticized Republican front-runner Mitt Romney for "caring about rich people" in a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also praised the effectiveness of Occupy Wall Street as an Obama campaign tool and cited unverified poll numbers to assert that "70 percent of the entire electorate believes Mitt Romney cares about rich people."
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Joining me now is former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Howard Fineman. Thank you both, Howards, for joining me tonight. Governor Dean, very to say, I don’t think every one of the 279 campaign days left is going to be fun for the Obama campaign. But I don’t see what they couldn’t—what they didn’t take pleasure in today in the Republican campaign. Everything seems to be going the Obama campaign’s way.
HOWARD DEAN: We have a long way to go, but the problem is, that most people in America believe that Republicans don’t care about—not only poor people, but middle class people. People complain about Occupy Wall Street, but they’ve completely changed the discussion. It’s the 99 and the 1. And most people believe the Republican Party is for the 1 and Obama’s for the 99. There’s some incredible polling about this. 70 percent of the entire electorate believe Mitt Romney cares about rich people. That’s a very steep hill to overcome. Since they’re trying to convince people the stereotype is wrong, that’s an even steeper hill.