0 ever known ♪ >> how do you know it's been a bad week for the republican presidential nominee? that's when willard mitt romney wants to change the subject to his tax returns. yes, you heard me right. that's how bad things have become for mr. romney. the meeting went something like this. someone on the campaign suggested bringing out a whiteboard on an airplane tarmac. that got shot down. they've already done the veep rollout. too late, i guess, to do that again. a foreign trip? i don't think that's such a good idea. the entire foreign front has proved a complete and utter disaster. but then came the eureka moment. one hour ago, 3:00 p.m. on a friday afternoon to be exact, the campaign decided it would finally release the romneys' full 2011 tax returns. mitt and ann paid $1.95 million in taxes on his 2011 investment income of $13.7 million. an effective rate of just over weekend about the fact that seniors are not buying the snake oil that they are trying to sell to them. i have never seen a campaign that is this infective at being able to both respond and then trying to shift gears, and the problem that romney will have going forward, remember, something like 20 battleground state newspapers editorialized against romney on that 47% comment. now, that's not just -- we're not talking about inside the beltway. we're talking about outside. that's what the polls i think are reflecting. but how romney turns it around is anybody's guess because he's got to have more than just a good day or a good two days. he's got to be on par, solid every single day between now and the election to even try to change the story. >> right. ari, in london we used to talk about the friday night coffin drop when someone wanted to drop something quietly. he's not done that for this reason. the romneys gave $4 million in charity in 2011. but only claimed a deduction of $2.25 million to keep their effective rate around the 13% mark. a move that according to mitt romney would disqualify for the presidency. take a listen. >> i have paid all the taxes required by law. i don't pay more than are legally due, and, frankly, if i had paid more than are legally due, i don't think i'd be qualified to become president. i think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires. >> doesn't the 2011 disqualify him according to his own words, his 2011 tax returns. >> he did pay several more points in taxes than he needed to. i don't think that should be a qualification for the presidency. >> but that's what he said. >> he said it, and he said it in rhetorical flourish and he would seem to count himself out. part of what's going on here -- >> just before you get to that, i want to make the point, if he hadn't reduced the opportunity to take those deductions, his >> first you said that romney, we need to see his tax returns, we need to have these tax returns released. >> we'd like 12 years like his father. >> he gave us a summary for 20 years. >> two years. >> he gave us a summary for 20 years. >> details for two years. >> executive -- >> i can give you a summary -- >> let me finish a sentence. >> please do. >> what was his effective rate over 20 years? it was 20.20%. so, again, the lib raleralliber never enough. first you want him to release his records and then you say he's not paying enough on taxes. my second point is you're being disingenuous. he's paying taxes on wages and salary. then he's paying taxes on investment income. so to suggest he's not paying his taxes or not paying his fair share a ludicrous. >> it's a distraction. >> you and i will agree with this. >> you agree? >> this is absolutely a distraction. >> so you agree he's released these in order to distract attention from his magnificent performance in florida where he's captured on tape dismissing and deriding 50% of the population. >> i think what the distraction is here, martin, is we are looking at mitt romney's taxes as opposed to looking at the president yes dismal record and you're going to fixate on this. >> karen, please. >> two. number one, we know mitt romney was willing to hing around with the numbers, if you will, to make sure that the numbers released today match what he said back in may, right. >> he's engineered the numbers. >> he's eveningineered the numb. that to me raises even more questions about what is in that last ten years of taxes because we know he has no problem engineering the numbers to make it say what he wants it to say. more importantly, ron, and this is the problem that your guy has right now, his rationale is he ways to the letter of the law what he is supposed to pay. so do the 47% of people that he writes off. they pay to the letter of the law every bit of tax they're supposed to pay and somehow they're lazy victims? >> come on. >> this is just so absurd, this whole notion he's written off 47% of the country. the fact -- >> it's what he said. >> the new gallup poll that came out today said that president obama has 47%, mitt romney has 47%. i know very well actually what governor romney said, martin, and the fact of the matter is he said there's no way these 47% of these people are going to vote for him. >> ron is cherry picking now. >> what he actually said is he characterized those people. he gave them certain conditions and he described them as entitled, dependent. >> yes. >> and victims. >> all of that is what's proved offensive. >> he made a value judgment about those people, ron. that's the problem. he made a value judgment about how much people pay, and he also doubled down on that by saying, you know, that's why to those people, those people, the idea of -- my plan for lowering their tax rates is not so interesting. i mean, that totally disrespects the work that the people -- >> absolutely, entirely not true. >> it disrespects how they live their lives. >> i'm sorry, the fact of the matter is that 49% of this country does, in fact, receive a check from the government. and it is true. i'm sorry. you guys minight not like the fact. >> lazy victims? >> we know that -- i'm sorry to tell you this, but a number of them are actually serving this nation overseas. >> that's right. >> i don't dispute that. >> many of them are elderly. and these are benefits they've paid into. let's be careful about discussing them. >> there's a problem here. it's a problem you have and a problem mitt romney has. you sound cold. you don't sound like you care about what government does. that's your biggest problem. the numbers bear that out so people can see why, but that's the fundamental thing that's going on. when you talk about the stimulus, when you talk about health care, when you talk about putting this nation back to work and when you talk about our veterans, some of whom don't pay taxes but serve us with the ultimate sacrifice, everything you're talking about here, the heart of it is that we have one idea here about government working for people and getting this country back to work, and you have another idea -- and i waited a while -- exemplified by mitt romney in a private moment of candor where he sounded even more cold than you, although i think you both sound cold, where the attitude is screw these people, we don't care about them politically. they're moochers, they're takers. that's the attitude. i think it sounds cold. i'm glad to see that it's being rejected by the public because sometimes this tough talk works. it doesn't seem to be working right now. >> i'm afraid we have to call it a day, but ari, i want to you let your parents know that they brought you up exceptionally well because you have been polite and waited for your opportunity. so thank you so much. >> karen finney, ron christie, ari, thank you all. next, more on the worst week ever for team romney. stay with us. >> the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care because it represents the worst of both worlds.