CNN's Wolf Blitzer presses Romney to explain '47 percent' comments

On Tuesday night, CNN host Wolf Blitzer questioned Mitt Romney about controversial statements the Republican presidential nominee made at a fundraiser earlier this year.

Blitzer asked Romney why he described "47 percent" of Americans as government-dependent "victims" who paid no income taxes and were therefore going to vote for President Barack Obama.

Romney told Blitzer "the words that came out were not what I meant" and insisted he would be president of "100 percent" of Americans if elected. The GOP candidate said his campaign was about helping the middle-class, because the "wealthy are doing fine right now, and they'll do fine, most likely, regardless of who is elected president."

"What should you have said about that 47 percent?" Blitzer asked.

"Well, Wolf, as you know, I was talking about how do you get to 50.1 percent of the vote," Romney said. "I'd like to get 100 percent of the vote, but I figure that's not going to happen, so I was trying to tell contributors how I get to 50.1 percent. I think it's always a perilous course for a candidate to start talking about the mathematics of an election."

The GOP candidate also said "Big Bird is going to be just fine" if federal funding for PBS is cut. At the first presidential debate last week, Romney he "loved" the Sesame Street character, but that as president he would not "keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by MoxNews.com, below:

Watch the full interview here.