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Can't get enough of the Newt demonstrating his rare, under-appreciated intelligence? Check out this Daily Show appearance from last year.
Daily Show Video: Newt Gingrich with Jon Stewart -- February 9, 2010
Newt Gingrich calls Obama radical for giving Miranda rights to the underwear bomber, forgets that he supported the exact same with Jose Padilla. It was not the right decision then or now, but Gingrich liked it under Bush.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Tuesday, leveling harsh criticism against the Obama administration.
After Gingrich assailed the administration for reading Miranda Rights to Detroit undie bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Stewart drew a comparison to something that happened under George W. Bush.
"Didn't they do the same with Richard Reid, who was the shoe bomber?" he asked the Republican icon.
"Richard Reid was an American citizen," insisted Gingrich.
Reid is actually a British citizen of Jamaican descent.
Stewart started to raise the Miranda Rights issue again, but Gingrich pushed the conversation along.
Later, when Gingrich acknowledged that part of his job is to reach out to the emotions of the American people, Stewart shot back, "I think that's wise. And don't let reality get in the way."
At the end of the show, Stewart realized that Gingrich had falsely claimed the shoe bomber was an American citizen and noted that to his audience.
The relevant portion of the interview begins at the 2:15 mark.
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UPDATE: Newt Gingrich Trips Up Again With 'Daily Show' Correction
The former speaker went on to note that Bush was "wrestling with what are the real ground rules for dealing with people who are clearly outside of normal warfare" -- suggesting, implicitly, that a criminal setting was appropriate for Padilla because it was the most effective at the time. "[W]e don't have a good set of rules," he declared.
But Gingrich wasn't done there. In a dig at the Obama White House, he added to the tail end of his tweet: "Treating terrorists like criminals wrong no matter who is Pres."
That's a standard GOP talking point, and yet when President Bush moved the Padilla case from a military setting to the criminal system, it was Gingrich who came to his defense despite conservative howls of protest, a Democratic source points out.
Appearing on Fox News in November 2005, the former speaker said the following when asked whether it was "a loss" for the Bush White House to have tried Padilla in civilian courts after holding him for three-and-a-half years as an enemy combatant:
"Well, I think if they believe they have enough evidence to convict him, going through the process of convicting him and holding him, I suspect, maybe for the rest of his life without parole would not be -- would hardly be seen as a loss," Gingrich said.