Newt Gingrich Calls Romney's Comments 'Nuts'
Former Speaker echoes views of prominent Republicans
After last week's gaffe by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, several prominent Republicans have voice their disagreement with certain comments. Now Newt Gingrich has weighed in on the fiasco, calling Romney's comments "nuts."
"It's nuts," Gingrich told Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week." "First of all, it's insulting. This would be like Wal-Mart having a bad week and going, 'The customers have really been unruly.' I mean, the job of a political leader in part is to understand the people. If we can't offer a better future that is believable to more people, we're not going to win."
Gingrich was referring to Romney's assertion that the reason he lost the campaign was because of "gifts" given to certain groups by President Obama. Romney told fundraisers and donors that Obama "followed the old playbook" of giving special interest gifts to "the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people," reported the New York Times.
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"In each case, they were very generous in what they gave to those groups," Romney explained. He then cited "forgiveness of college loan interest… free contraceptives… and Obamacare" as those "gifts" given to bring voters to his side.
When the call went public, Romney did not deny its authenticity and angered many of his Republican colleagues who are now distancing themselves from Romney.
"I think that's absolutely wrong," Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said at a press conference. "Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. And secondly, we need to continue to show how our policies help every voter our there achieve the American dream, which is to be in the middle class, which is to be able to give their children an education. … So, I absolutely reject that notion, that description."
Gingrich seconded Jindal's assertion by telling Raddatz, "It's an insult to all Americans. It reduces us to economic entities. You have no passion, no idealism, no dreams, no philosophy. If it had been that simple, my question would be, 'Why didn't you outbid him?'"
President Obama has not commented on Romney's allegation but instead said at a news conference that he wants to "get ideas from him and see if there are some ways that we can potentially get together."
