Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor whom Trump tapped late last month to lead the Commerce Department, backed Romney's damaging comments in a September 2012 interview with Indian TV station NDTV, according to video provided to CNN by the liberal research group American Bridge.
"I assume you are aware that he's correct. About 50% of Americans do not in fact pay any tax -- period," Ross said after the interviewer asked Ross if he agreed with Romney's comments. "Whether it's good politics or not is a different question, I'm not qualified to judge that. But it is an accurate statement."
Ross also argued in the 2012 interview that "a very high percentage of the unemployed people claim disabilities so that they can get more money."
He added that "40-some-odd percent of the ones who claim disability claim sudden mental disability."
Ross added: "So there's a lot of nonsense that goes on within the social programs."
While nearly 47% of Americans did not pay any federal income tax around the time of Romney's statement, according to a 2011 finding by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, Romney did not just cite a statistic. Instead, the 2012 Republican nominee said at a private fundraiser that nearly half of Americans would vote for his opponent President Barack Obama because they depend on the government and believe they are "victims."
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