Gingrich: Romney lives in world of "Swiss bank accounts" and $20 million income

Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

/ AP Photo/Matt Rourke

MIAMI - Seeking to pair his political enemies, Newt Gingrich on Wednesday blasted Mitt Romney's call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an "Obama-level fantasy" and called for "psychological warfare" to oust Cuba's Castro regime.

Appearing at a presidential candidate forum with the Spanish-language station Univision, Gingrich said Romney's call for having illegal immigrants return to their home countries is vastly inferior to the former House speaker's plan to let some longtime immigrants stay in the United States.

"I think you have to live in worlds of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatic $20 million a year income with no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," Gingrich said, jabbing at Romney's self-released income taxes from this week.

By comparison, Gingrich said, his approach to immigration includes "people who have been here for a long time, who are grandmothers and grandfathers, who have been paying their bills, they've been working. Now, for Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off she is going to self deport? This ... is an Obama-level fantasy."

Under questioning from moderator Jorge Ramos, Gingrich said his plan would cover longtime immigrants who have family in the United States and who have been in the country for 20 to 25 years. He would have a local citizen board -- modeled after World War II-era draft boards - review their requests.

Ramos responded that Gingrich's plan would exclude most of the estimated 11 million people who are now in the country illegally.Of the rest, Gingrich said, "Most of them I'd urge to get a guest worker permit." When Ramos said that could not be done under current law, Gingrich answered: "We can write a law which makes them eligible to apply for a guest worker permit."

In another proposed legislative change, Gingrich said he wants immigrants who receive graduate degrees in science- and technology-related fields to be eligible for visas "so they automatically upon graduation know that they can stay and work in the United States."

To deal with the Castro regime, Gingrich called for steps similar to what were used during the 1980s to hasten the breakup of the Soviet Union, including economic, diplomatic and "covert operations" tools.

"What you want to do is you want to network everybody," he said. "It's also psychological warfare. You want to say to the entire younger generation of the dictatorship you have no future propping up the dictatorship."

Ramos also asked Gingrich several questions about his personal life, including whether it was hypocritical of him to seek President Clinton's impeachment for lying about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky while the speaker was having an affair. Gingrich repeated his stance that his and Clinton's situations were not parallel.

"I didn't do the same thing," he said. "I never lied under oath, I have never committed perjury, I have never been involved in a felony - he was. I had one of his closest friends come to see me and said to me, 'You know lots of people have done what he did' and I said 'that's right but they didn't lie under oath about it.' And the guy looked at me and said, 'Well, you're right, that's a felony and that's a real problem.'''

Gingrich also repeated his denial of his ex-wife Marianne's claim in an ABC News interview that he sought an open marriage. "We offered several witnesses to ABC who said it was not true," he said. "ABC did not want any of the witnesses." The network has disputed that assertion, saying it would have been happy to interview anyone who could corroborate his position.

[bjdayan]

Mitt Romney's secret Swiss bank account raises a few questions about "fairness" because in 2009 the IRS conducted a large-scale tax evasion crackdown at UBS bank where his account was located.

Apparently, bank managers who helped US citizens hide their assets were charged with tax fraud. UBS agreed to turn over 4,500 account holders to the IRS. Did one of these bank accounts belong to Mitt Romney?

[SpittinBullitz]

Obama will Neuter Newt, but Mitt Romney has no business even running for president. Why? Because Mittens belongs to a religion that molly-coddles abusive polygamists, like Warren Jeffs, and raises tens of millions of dollars to crush gay marriage. O ye hypocrites! Mormon communities are overrun with "lost boys" who are expelled from fundamentalist Mormon sects so older polygamists can marry "child brides". How much time and money have Romney and his millionaire Mormon pals spent to cleanup polygamy in their own backyard? ZERO. Watch the doc film "Banking On Heaven" (available at most libraries) and you'll never vote for a Mormon.

[PGG1]

What nonsense. In the years he was governor of Massachusetts, did his religion ever become a major issue in his governing style? Heck, the entire world is "attacking" him for being a moderate and you're trying to paint him as some crazy far-right religious extremist? Folks need to at least get their stories straight.

Romney has been the candidate in focus since the Republican nomination process started. The Democrats have been trying to get stuff on him. The Republican challengers have all been trying to get stuff on him. The best you all have come up with is...he's Mormon? Oh yeah, I forgot, he's also successful and pays exactly what he owes in taxes. That's been in the news, too. If this is the worst the smear machines have after all this time, then the Republicans should jump at the chance to have him as their nominee.

[PGG1]

Yes, Newt, and you're just a $40k/year working stiff, right? Millionaires criticizing other millionaires for...being millionaires. Give it up. We all know rich people run for president. Talk about the issues already instead of trying to pretend you're "one of us."