Worst Comments Newt Gingrich Made During 2012 Race

Gingrich offended many groups during his campaign, which will reportedly end next week.

Gays. Blacks. Palestinians. Latinos.

These are just some groups Newt Gingrich offended during his 2012 presidential bid.

Now that his campaign aides have announced that he’ll drop out of the race next week, take a look back at the comments he made that alienated minority groups.

Gays: Back in December, a gay man named Scott Arnold asked Gingrich, then campaigning in Iowa, how he planned to engage gay Americans. Gingrich told him that he’d better off voting for President Barack Obama. Given that Gingrich’s lesbian sister announced that she supported Obama because of her brother’s anti-gay agenda, his callous comment was no surprise. Still, the William Penn University professor was offended. “When you ask somebody a question and you expect them to support all Americans and have everyone’s general interest, it’s a little bit frustrating and disheartening when you’re told to support the other side,” Arnold said. 

[ALSO READ: Gingrich to Drop Out]

Poor (Black) Kids: While campaigning at the Nationwide Insurance offices in December, Gingrich suggested poor children work in schools as janitors. “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” he said. “They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.” African Americans in particular balked at the idea that poor kids have no role models who work.

Palestinians: Discussing Israel during an appearance on the Jewish Channel in December, Gingrich questioned the existence of Palestinian people. He said, “I think we have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and who are historically part of the Arab community. They had a chance to go to many places, and for a variety of political reasons, we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s.” Following this comment, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said Gingrich’s comments denied “historical truths.”

Latinos: In January, Mitt Romney’s campaign found a 2007 speech Gingrich gave in which he disparaged the Spanish language. Gingrich denied the remark in 2012, but the media dug up the damning speech. Gingrich said, “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.” It’s no surprise Gingrich lost the Florida primary.