Gingrich slams media for distorting his comments on food stamps

UPDATED 9:40 a.m. ET

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slammed the "elite" national media for distorting what he said about blacks and food stamps.

"You guys have distorted what I said," Gingrich said on CBS' "The Early Show" Friday, denying that he said blacks should be "satisfied with food stamps."

CBS News and other outlets reported Thursday that Gingrich said that if he were invited to speak to the NAACP, he would tell the civil rights group "why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." (Watch the original comment here)

On "The Early Show," Gingrich was asked if he misspoke when he said African-Americans should be satisfied with food stamps.

"I said they shouldn't be (satisfied). I didn't say they were satisfied. You just reversed what I said," Gingrich told host Nancy Cordes.

"What I said was every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with a right to pursue happiness. Every American of every background should have an opportunity to get a job, not be dependent on food stamps. Every American of every background should be able to go to a school that actually works where they get educated," Gingrich said.

Gingrich said he would welcome a request to speak the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "unlike most Republican candidates," because he wants to have a dialogue.

"Forty-three percent black teenage unemployment is totally unacceptable as an American future. Obviously, I'm happy to go and talk to anybody in America. I went on to say I'd be happy to talk to any Latino group or any other group that was interested in talking about having paychecks rather than food stamps," Gingrich said.

NAACP leader blasts Gingrich's food stamp comment

According to U.S. Census Bureau, about 28 percent of households that receive food stamps are African American, while 59 percent are white. According to the same report, about 78 percent of American households are white, while about 12 percent are black. (The overall population is 72.4 percent white and 12.6 percent black.)

Oscar Eason, President of NAACP State Conference of Alaska, Oregon and Washington State, told CBS News Gingrich's comment "goes right to the heart of real racism - that African Americans are lazy and don't want to work and depend entirely on handouts."

Full CBS News coverage: Newt Gingrich

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Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail

[bigtiny99]

food stamps are regularly sold for cash to spend on other "necessities"

[JoeGennaro]

Jon Huntman's daughters made the bad video that was attributed to a Ron Paul supporter. First of all, how did some random person get such intimate footage of the huntsman family, unless the random person IS in Huntsman's family? Second of all, Abby, the same daughter who was looking guilty on Fox News, mistakenly admitted it on the huntsman site forum (thinking it was a private thread when it was actually public lol.) http://imgur.com/a/Jw679 and also http://orinje.com/threads/430416-The-paulbots-are-going-crazy-with-our-video . Thirdly, an independent web company investigated, came to the conclusion that the video was posted from Huntsman's campaign servers, and then explained why pretty clearly. http://images.politico.com/global/2012/01/cando_com_analysis.html I actually can't believe it. This is so slimy and underhanded. Well folks, this is the kind of person who is the status quo politician.

[Gamgra]

I have never seen so many brainwashed individuals in this country ever. He tries to do some good things for some minority groups and all anybody on here can say that he "singles out" people and that he is just an anti American talkhead who doesn't do anything. When in fact, and these are facts, he worked with Reagan to literally save the country from a second economic depression, worked on welfare reform that got people to work and school, and continued to speak out for minority populations in this country.

The contract with America that he made as speaker worked across the aisle to get things done, and that's who I want in the White House. Somebody who can stand up for ALL groups of people, and send an inspirational message to everyone to get them working and becoming better citizens.

NEWT 2012!!!

[devinesara]

Here's the only thing I'll ever agree w/Gingrich on: yes, the media does suck.

[wes2011]

Gingrich's wealthy friends are going to have to settle for less than 500x the average worker salary if these jobs Gingrich promising are going to materialize. You know, something more like 40x, like during St. Reagan's reign.

Has this guy ever had a job? He gets 1.7 million just for bloviating at Fanny and Freddie. What's this guy know about getting and having a job?

[norcalruss]

The Toad is a whiner. All he does is to blame the media blame, Romney's ads, blame Paul's ads..... Wah! Way! Wah!

[OculusMax]

The only problem with the reporters stats: Latinos are considered "white" when it comes to people qualifying for food stamps. The same is true for FBI crime stats. Disingenuous reporting to say the least.

[fedup12]

Funny.. Newt are those mean reporters after you again???? Wah wah wah. For repeating something you said wah wah wah.

Ill say it again. If any of these guys had to go through what Obama did during the birther BS they would probably go into hiding.

Poor little fellers...

BTW Ron Paul FTW ... if any of you were getting ready to call me a lib. I just don't like hypocritical fools.

[blue922-2146190200522946112563]

Newt ginGrinchs ego is larger than his brain. He thinks he is Mr KnowItAll, however, he is just pompus with this nonsense leaking out of his ends.

[JRC_903]

Newt made a calculation that he could say what he said, get the benefit he wanted from his target audience.........., and not be called to task by anyone the wiser.

Newt seems to think that he is living in the age of the Lincoln-Douglas debate--- you know-- you travel on horse back from one town to the next--- take a sampling of local concerns and tailor a speech that capitalizes on that local discontent. Then move on to the next town where the concerns are at the opposite end of the political spectrum. On and on. If not for the media's interference,, he might fool a lot of people