The leader of the "Nuns on the Bus" tour spoke out against Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comments, calling the Republican candidate’s words "shocking" and heart-breaking evidence he's "out-of-touch" with "folks at the margins of our society."
In an interview with Think Progress, frequent Last Word guest, Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, explained her deep disappointment with Romney:
"I mean, it was shocking to me that a person who says he wants to be the leader of our nation believes that 47 percent of our country is basically lazy or dependent or indolent. That was shocking to me. But then, it broke my heart that he would be so out of touch, that he would so not know the truth of folks at the margins of our society who work so hard. And he obviously doesn’t know that if you work a minimum wage job, if you’re a child care, if you’re providing janitorial services, or if you’re a day laborer, if you work for minimum wage, you’re still in poverty. He has no idea how hard it is at the margins of our society."
A surreptitious recording of Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser shows the Republican candidate ragging on the "47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what" as people "who are dependent upon government."
Campbell and fellow Catholic sisters have been on a crusade to put social issues, and the consequences of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's budget, in the spotlight.
In June, "Nuns on the Bus" hit the road on a 15-day pilgrimage through Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia to preach it to Americans.