Politics & Government

Gingrich Gets Another Rough Greeting in Iowa

The state that had been so good to him recently hasn't been as welcoming the past couple of days.

Newt Gingrich can't seem to buy a break in Iowa. Riding high in the polls just a short time ago, this morning even an endorsement from a leading Iowa lawmaker turned sour.

This comes following his tanking poll numbers, a lost endorsement he had been pining for and a confrontation with a foul-mouthed voter at a meet-and-greet campaign stop that was aired several times on CNN.

This morning in the Iowa capitol building, Occupy Des Moines protesters sidelined the endorsement of Gingrich from Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha.

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“Mic Check,” Adam Mason of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement yelled and a few others from his group shouted as he quickly stood up, according to a report from the Des Moines Register.

A few minutes after the commotion had subsided, a few others began chanting, “Put people first.”

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Gingrich’s response, according to the newspaper: “I was at the University of Iowa the other day and that same 1/10th of one percent – all noise, no thought – tried to drown out the conversation so I appreciate you all putting it in that perspective,” said Gingrich, a former U.S. House speaker and 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

Several members of the group followed Gingrich and his wife, Callista, down the stairs of the Capitol and to a vehicle that was waiting to escort them, according to the report, and screamed: 

“You gave me 10 seconds, sir. What if I had a million dollars. Would I get 10 minutes? How about an hour?”

“Speaker Gingrich, you can run but you can’t hide. We’re going to come for you everywhere you go. You can’t show your face in public without seeing us.”

Tuesday, during a meet and greet in eastern Iowa, a voter approached Gingrich and told him, with television cameras rolling, that he was a — well, a four-letter word and a body part. 

That came just after The Family Leader, Iowa's most influential evangelical group, announced it would not endorse a GOP candidate and the group's leader, Bob Vander Plaats, announced he was personally going with Rick Santorum.


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