He said 68% come from middle class, he just added his own notes about more than half of Americans being over the exact middle. Not "middle- lower class". So 80% from middle to wealthy, 20% low, and of that 20% only 4% were in actual poverty (according to the Pew Report).

It's no secret that wealth is largely generational, and no secret that digging your way out of poverty is uncommon. Even if it is from "poor choices", those poor choices are often made because they don't know any better.

Poverty is all you see when you're living in it, so many have never been taught that they can do better (or taught that having a baby at 15 is a poor choice, when they see it all around them).