Newt Gingrich

Did Newt Gingrich Violate Campaign Finance Laws?

Ryan J. Reilly | December 6, 2011, 4:03PM

Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at a press conference before a tea party rally at the Hilton Garden Inn in Staten Island, New York on December 3, 2011.

A campaign finance lawyer flags this part of the Washington Post's story on Newt Gingrich's massive $1.2 million campaign debt:

One of the campaign's biggest creditors is Gingrich himself, who billed the campaign more than $125,000 for a mailing list and travel expenses, about half of which remained unpaid at the end of last quarter.

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Topics: FEC, Federal Election Commission, Newt Gingrich

Lobbyists

Lobbying Watchdogs Have A Good Laugh Over Newt Gingrich's 'Historian' Line

Ryan J. Reilly | November 10, 2011, 12:53PM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Good government types are getting a kick out of Newt Gingrich's claim at Wednesday's debate that he wasn't a lobbyist for Freddie Mac but was rather hired for his skills as an historian.

"I have never done any lobbying," Gingrich said, adding that he only offered "advice as an historian."

For some context, a full-time professor of history made an average of $63,119 per year around 2006. Newt racked up $300,000, or about 4.75 times as much.

But to get at a larger point, lobbying watchdogs say Gingrich's justification shows just how weak lobbying disclosures are and how easy it is to avoid registering.

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Newt Gingrich

Newt's Presidential Campaign Spells End For 'American Solutions'

Ryan J. Reilly | August 26, 2011, 4:45PM

Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's decision to make a run for the nomination has cost some Americans their jobs.

The Center for Public Integrity's Peter H. Stone breaks the news that the political group American Solutions for Winning the Future is a thing of the past. The 527 group, which raised $52 million in the four years since Gingrich founded it, closed its K Street offices and laid off its final six employees early last month.

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Newt Gingrich

Thrice Married Newt Gingrich Says Gays 'Muddle' Marriage

Ryan J. Reilly | June 27, 2011, 9:55AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) with wife, Callista.

Newt Gingrich, who is married to his third wife, said this weekend that the U.S. was "drifting towards a terrible muddle" by not limiting marriage to members of the opposite sex, Reuters reported.

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Newt Gingrich

Gingriches Rang Up Big Tiffany & Co. Bill While Jeweler Was Lobbying Her House Committee

Ryan J. Reilly | May 24, 2011, 6:20PM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) with wife, Callista.

Tiffany & Co. was actively lobbying the House committee Newt Gingrich's wife Callista was working for at the time the couple had a $250,000 to $500,000 interest-free revolving charge account with the famed jeweler, SpyTalk blogger Jeff Stein reports.

Newt Gingrich has previously touted his Tiffany's bill as evidence of his fiscal responsibility because he paid it off in full. Newt Gingrich also claimed the revolving charge account with Tiffany & Co. came interest-free, but the high-end jewelery company doesn't appear to offer such a deal to your average Joe, the Washington Post reports.

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American Solutions for Winning the Future

Newt Gingrich's Former PAC Took In Just $34 Per Day In April

Ryan J. Reilly | May 19, 2011, 12:06PM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

As Newt Gingrich prepared his run for president, his main political action committee dramatically scaled back its fundraising activity. American Solutions PAC took in only $1,040 in the month of April -- an average of just $34.66 per day.

"The $1,040 raised in April was money that trickled in late from one mail piece we sent out at the beginning of the year," Dan Kotman of American Solutions told TPM in an email.

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Newt Gingrich

Plane Rides Will End, But Newt Inc. Will 'Aggressively Move Forward' After Gingrich Announcement

Ryan J. Reilly | May 11, 2011, 9:20AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Newt Gingrich is set to announce his presidential campaign via Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday. That could mean a change -- or an end -- to his involvement in the plethora of organizations he's affiliated with, collectively known as Newt Inc.

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Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich Helped Jump-Start Campaign To Oust Iowa Judges

Jillian Rayfield | March 3, 2011, 4:03PM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Newt Gingrich secured $200 thousand for a successful campaign by anti-gay groups last fall to oust Iowa Supreme Court justices who voted to allow gay marriage in Iowa, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"It wouldn't have happened without Newt," said David Lane, executive director of the group that spearheaded the campaign, Iowa For Freedom.

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Newt Gingrich

Gingrich To Rumsfeld: Plant Army Spies Throughout Government

Ryan J. Reilly | March 3, 2011, 12:43PM

Former Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich recommended in a 2003 memo to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that he "both maximize DoD's influence on debates and to maximize the flow of information to DoD" by establishing "a system of DoD detailees throughout the federal government and where possible as overseas detached personnel for foreign governments."

Gingrich wanted the Defense Department to have more reach in the policy making apparatus and not "yield the territory" at the National Security Counsel and elsewhere to the State Department and other interests.

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Newt Gingrich

Coal Interests Fueling Gingrich's Cash-Burning 527

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | December 16, 2010, 8:50AM

The recently released IRS filings of Newt Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future makes a few things clear: the coal industry loves him; he's a fan of private planes; and for a self proclaimed fiscal conservative, he's getting a measly return on the millions he's throwing at a Christian telemarketing company that raises cash for the 527 group.

American Solutions, which is dedicated to "creating the next generation of solutions that will ensure the United States remains the safest, freest and most prosperous country in the world" -- raked in $14.5 million in contributions last year, according to IRS filings.

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Newt Gingrich

Gingrich's 527 Promotes Itself And Newt -- But Not GOP Candidates

Ryan J. Reilly | October 5, 2010, 9:24AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

These days, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, most so-called "527" groups -- able to accept unlimited contributions and hide the sources of their donations -- have taken to helping their favorite candidates and attacking their opponents in political advertisements.

Not Newt Gingrich's 527 group. The vast majority of expenses by American Solutions for Winning the Future from April-June 2010 went towards promoting both the organization itself and one man: Newt Gingrich.

American Solutions spent at least $2.3 million on fundraising activities, travel expenses and direct marketing in the months of April, May and June -- including over $1.4 million on direct marketing alone -- according to an analysis by TPMMuckraker. That's the majority of the $3.2 million the group spent altogether. The group took in $3.4 million in donations during that period.

The AP found in an earlier review that American Solutions spent nearly all of the $20 million it has raised in the past two years on administrative and travel expenses.

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Mosques

The War On Sharia Started Long Before You Ever Heard 'Ground Zero Mosque'

Rachel Slajda | September 23, 2010, 9:07AM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Robert Spencer, the author of JihadWatch.org, says he first became aware of the threat of Sharia "after seeing repeated attempts to assert the primacy of Islamic law over American law." One of those early attempts, he told TPMmuckraker, came in late 2006, when Muslim cab drivers in Minnesota made news by refusing to take passengers carrying alcohol. The incidents resulted in the cabbies going to the back of the queue, letting passengers with booze get into another cab.

Spencer has been one of a handful of neocons -- along with Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes, among others -- who have been sounding the alarm about Sharia law for years. They warn that Sharia, a system of laws defined by the Koran, is taking hold in the United States, and that it will eventually threaten the very Constitution.

Their warnings, so long spoken from the fringe, are now at the heart of today's anti-mosque rhetoric.

We started digging in the archives to find the origin of this fear. What we found may not be conclusive, but it shows a path that has lead to increasingly mainstream figures, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, calling for a federal ban on Sharia law.

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Newt Gingrich

'This Is The Final Struggle:' Newt Gingrich Sells A Movie About The Islamic Threat To America

Rachel Slajda | September 10, 2010, 5:24PM

Citizens United trailer for "America At Risk: The War With No Name"

In a straight-to-DVD movie that will premiere tomorrow night in D.C., Newt Gingrich and Citizens United warn Americans of the impending threat of radical Islam. As one of their talking heads says in the trailer, "This is the end of times. This is the final struggle."

The movie, called "America At Risk," paints the world as a dangerous place filled with radicalized Muslims who want to -- and, importantly, can -- destroy America.

"The war on terror, and the ideology behind it, have only just begun," Gingrich's wife, Callista Gingrich, intones while she and Gingrich stand in front of a green-screened New York skyline.

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Cordoba House

Gingrich: Make Ground Zero A National Battlefield To Stop The Supposed Mosque

Rachel Slajda | September 2, 2010, 6:26PM

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

The majority of New Yorkers want the developers of Park51, known to its opponents as the "Ground Zero mosque," to voluntarily move the community center further from Ground Zero -- but the majority also acknowledges the developers' right to build there if they want.

Newt Gingrich doesn't feel that way. In a radio interview today, he said he wants the national government to step in and stop the developers from building the Islamic community center by whatever means necessary.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Muslim Group: Cabbie Slashing A Warning On Anti-Muslim Rhetoric

Ryan J. Reilly | August 25, 2010, 6:29PM

Friends and classmates say Michael Enright, the 21-year-old aspiring filmmaker who was arraigned on a hate crimes charges this afternoon for allegedly slashing a NYC cab driver because he was a Muslim, had a serious drinking problem. But a representative of one of the country's predominant Muslim groups told TPMMuckraker that the incident should serve as a warning to those using inflammatory rhetoric about those who practice Islam.

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Jon Stewart

Daily Show Introduces Mosque Opponents To Halal Meat Carts (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | August 11, 2010, 10:14AM

Jon Stewart was a little bit confused last night about the controversy over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque," and with people like Tennessee Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey (R), who said that Islam may be a "cult" and not a religion.

"You know," said Stewart, "I can see being confused by Scientology, or the thing Madonna does with the red bracelets, or this whole Justin Bieber craze, certain 'World of Warcraft' guilds, Harry Potter book clubs. But I think 1400 years" pretty much qualifies Islam as a religion.

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Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich's Second Wife Dishes Hard To Esquire: His Money Woes, His Philandering, His Meltdown

Megan Carpentier | August 11, 2010, 8:42AM

In 1999, after refusing to take the seat he won in the 1998 elections, Newt Gingrich left his second wife, Marianne, for a much-younger staffer with whom he'd been having an almost-ignored affair. As in his first marriage, he did so shortly after Marianne was diagnosed with a serious illness; as in his first divorce, he fought Marianne tooth and nail over any financial settlement. And then he had the Atlanta archdiocese inform Marianne that their marriage was invalid in the eyes of his fiancée's faith; 9 years later, he completed his conversion to Catholicism.

Given his popularity among Republicans, one would think there is little left to say about Gingrich's personal foibles that could hurt his political career. But sandwiched in between snippets from his campaign to return to popularity in yesterday's Esquire profile are tidbits from the still-supportive Marianne that portray Gingrich in a far-from-pleasant light -- and hints that his personal foibles took quite a toll on his political fortunes behind the scenes.

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Sarah Palin

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Mosque? TPM Rounds Up The Latest In Right-Wing Fear-Mongering

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 8:30AM

Clockwise from top left: Former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Peter King (R-NY), and NY Gov. candidate Carl Paladino (R). Center: A mosque.

The right-wing controversy du jour? Construction of several mosques throughout the U.S. -- perhaps most notably, a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York City. In many cases, the right-wing fear-mongering has fed a shrill campaign warning against Muslims inevitably using their places of worship to conspire to implant sharia law in the lives of unsuspecting Americans.

So which right-wingers are most afraid of the big bad mosques? TPM rounds up the worst offenders.

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Newt Gingrich

Gingrich On Ground Zero Mosque: We Should Be More Like Saudi Arabia

Jillian Rayfield | July 22, 2010, 9:37AM

Newt Gingrich

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the latest to weigh in on the controversial plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero, posting a statement on his website yesterday laying out this ultimatum: "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia."

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Darrell Issa

No Let Up: Darrell Issa's Tireless Quest For Scandal

Zachary Roth | April 23, 2010, 8:35AM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

Remember the 1990s, when Newt Gingrich, Dan Burton and co. managed to create a steady stream of outrage by playing up every Clinton administration "scandal," no matter how minor? Or how about the last years of the Bush administration, when Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) seemed to function as a one-man investigative machine, making sure that no Bush administration wrong-doing went unexamined?

Today that role is being played by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight committee. But despite the steady stream of made-to-order conspiracy theories coming from Fox News and the Tea Party crowd, it's a much harder job. That's largely because Issa's party is in the minority, so he doesn't have the power to compel testimony or subpoena documents. And it's perhaps also because, though the Obama administration is far from squeaky clean, Issa just hasn't had the kind of material to work with that his predecessors did.

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Miranda rights

Overlooked On Newt-Stewart Exchange: Is Gingrich Confused About The Law?

Justin Elliott | February 10, 2010, 5:59PM

Newt Gingrich and Jon Stewart

As long as it's Miranda day around here: there's something in danger of being lost in all the chuckling today over Newt Gingrich's misidentification of shoebomber Richard Reid as an American citizen.

The fact is, non-citizens have the same rights under the U.S. criminal justice system as citizens. Non-citizens must be read their Miranda rights before so-called "custodial interrogation" by the police, just like anyone else.

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Texas Textbook Hearings

Conservative Vision Ascendant In Latest TX History Textbooks Draft; Gingrich, Schlafly Back In

Justin Elliott | January 18, 2010, 11:17AM

Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly

The conservative bloc on the Texas State Board of Education won a string of victories Friday, obtaining approval for an amendment requiring high school U.S. history students to know about Phyllis Schlafly and the Contract with America as well as inserting a clause that aims to justify McCarthyism.

Outspoken conservative board member Don McLeroy, who reportedly spent over three hours personally proposing changes to the textbook standards, even wanted to cut "hip-hop" in favor of "country" in a section about the impact of cultural movements. That amendment failed.

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Texas Textbook Hearings

The Rehabilitation Of Joseph McCarthy? Texas Textbooks Process Grinds On

Justin Elliott | January 14, 2010, 1:55PM

Joseph McCarthy

When we last checked in on the U.S. history textbooks standards setting process down in Texas, the conservative-dominated State Board of Education was mulling one-sided requirements to teach high school students about Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Moral Majority.

Now, in the home stretch of a process that will set the state's nationally influential standards, a liberal watchdog group is worried that the State Board of Education will try to push through changes to claim that communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy has been vindicated by history, among other right-wing pet issues.

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Texas

Could Texas' Gingrich-Based High School History Curriculum Go National?

Justin Elliott | September 4, 2009, 9:02AM

Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly

While Republicans are busy gnashing their teeth over President Obama's imminent indoctrination of the nation's schoolchildren, there's an education story bubbling up in Texas that could have considerably more far-reaching consequences.

The GOP-controlled State Board of Education is working on a new set of statewide textbook standards for, among other subjects, U.S. History Studies Since Reconstruction. And it turns out what the board decides may end up having implications far beyond the Lone Star State.

The first draft of the standards, released at the end of July, is a doozy. It lays out a kind of Human Events version of U.S. history.

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