COLUMBIA, SC -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was forced to answer tough questions and clarify his past statements on race before members of an African American congregation Saturday evening.
At the Jones Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Gingrich spoke before a group unlikely to vote for him, or any Republican candidate, in the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary. The crowd did not hold back from asking tough questions.
“You made a statement about kids getting free lunch and about them working as janitors to pay for their free lunch -- if you could clarify that,” a man asked Gingrich right away during the question and answer session.
“Well I didn’t say anything about free lunch. What I said was in the poorest neighborhoods, if we could find a way to help young people earn some money, we might actually be able to keep the dropout rate down and give people an incentive to come to school,” Gingrich responded. “My goal is to say, young people who start early who get a job, who earn a little bit of money, can help their family, they can help themselves, they learn the work habit.”
“Good response,” the man shouted after Gingrich wrapped up the answer.
Gingrich was invited to speak at the African American church by a member of the congregation who had attended a previous town hall meeting put on by the campaign. Holding this conversation on MLK weekend was very fitting, Gingrich said, whose wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids joined him for the event.
“It may be a particularly appropriate idea on the weekend when we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday because I think this would be what he would have liked. A chance for the community to have a conversation and to talk,” he said, also making note that he traveled the country with Al Sharpton talking about how to improve schools.
And while the conversation did remain civil Saturday, there was a heated exchange with a woman who said Gingrich is seen throughout the country as “a racist and a bigot” and asked why he talked about people in the “ghetto.”
“First of all,” Gingrich fired back, “I don't quite know why you would say that, I never … what I've said is that we want everyone to be able to rise in all of America. We want everyone to be able to use English and be able to rise in the whole country.”
The lady, Raushanne Thompson, said she couldn’t understand why Gingrich continues to call President Barack Obama a “food stamp president when he was the first and president of his law class at Harvard.” After Gingrich answered her many accusations, she left the church before the town hall ended.
She wasn’t the only attendee who questioned Gingrich on his attacks on Obama. The same man who questioned Gingrich on kids working jumped up again for a second question later in the speech. He said he couldn’t understand why people are being so harsh on Obama. He said it was a Republican in the White House for eight years who caused the “trash” to pile up, and he said Obama had only had three years to fix it.
“I think you just gave the best case for Obama that’s going to be given,” Gingrich responded. “I think if I were him [Obama], I’d take that statement and turn it into a campaign commercial.”
A small group gathered around Gingrich when the town hall concluded, placing their hands on the former speaker and his wife to pray for them.
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Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Sunday, January 15th 2012 at 3:52PM
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