It turns out Mitt Romney isn’t the only presidential candidate to have a video leak this week.
Fresh on the heels of Romney’s leaked campaign fundraising video, in which the Republican candidate calls 47 percent of Americans "dependent on government" since they don’t pay federal income taxes, a recording from a purported 1998 Loyola University appearance by President Barack Obama has been posted to YouTube.
UPDATE: Mitt Romney criticized Obama's remarks in the the video Wednesday, saying that it was proof that he "really believes in what I'll call a government-centered society," CBS News reports. Wealth redistribution, he added, has "never been a characteristic of America."
The sentiments revealed in the more than decade-old Obama video, however, are far different those Romney expressed at a Florida fundraiser this May. Referring to efforts to restore the efficacy of government, then-Illinois state Sen. Obama said:
“The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some [wealth] redistribution -- because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure that everybody’s got a shot.”
A request for comment to confirm the authenticity of the leaked Loyola video was not immediately returned by the Obama campaign.
During his 2008 presidential campaign, some 10 years later, it seemed Obama's stance on redistribution had changed little. He garnered Republican criticism when he told an Ohio campaign audience, “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
Obama now may be more wary of such language. Earlier this year when the president pushed for the Buffett Rule, a plan that would have raised taxes on the wealthy, he maintained such a tax increase was not designed to redistribute wealth but to spur investment in the U.S. economy.
Listen to more of Obama’s 1998 Loyola University appearance below:
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