Republican presidential candidate, former House speaker Newt Gingrich is surrounded by media outside the Webster School in Manchester, N.H., Jan. 10, 2012, where primary voting was taking place.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
UPDATED 5:55 p.m. ET
BEDFORD, N.H.--Newt Gingrich agreed on Tuesday with Mitt Romney that the former Massachusetts governor's controversial comment on firing people was taken out of context. But Gingrich said he's certain that his rival's campaign now is "clearly limping" no matter what happens in Tuesday night's primary.
Gingrich said he has declined to join in the GOP's fierce criticism of Romney for saying "I like being able to fire people" while making a point about health insurance. "On his comment yesterday on 'I like firing people,' once I saw the whole quote, I said that's not fair to take it out of context," Gingrich told network-news reporters during an interview aboard his campaign bus.
But the former House speaker predicted that even if Romney wins New Hampshire, as he is widely expected to do, he has sustained enough political damage to make it considerably harder for him going forward.
"We wanted to spend the last week defining Romney to make sure--there was a real danger coming out of Iowa that Romney was going to really sweep in a way that would be unstoppable," Gingrich said. "He bought a house here. He's lived here. He's campaigned here. My sense is, he's not going to get anywhere close to 50 percent, and this is his third-best state after Utah and Massachusetts, so if he can't come close to 50 percent here, it's very unlikely that he can sweep the nomination."
He added: "I think this campaigning for the last six days, I think everybody who's been here has felt a shift in mood, a shift in crowd size, the shift in media coverage. You know Romney came here as a victorious person, and I think he is clearly limping at this point."
Gingrich made clear he is increasingly staking his campaign on beating Romney in South Carolina, where the former Massachusetts governor leads in polls while Gingrich is battling Rick Santorum for second. "You can imagine three or four circumstances where we would go on to Florida [whose primary is Jan. 31] even if we came in second, but I think my goal is to come in first in South Carolina," he said.
Gingrich was also critical of Rep. Ron Paul, saying of the Texas congressman's ardent supporters: "They're young enthusiasts, and at some point people will figure out this is actually the legalize-drugs group."
Paul, asked to respond to Gingrich's remark on CNN, called his rival "completely off base."
"I just want to get rid of the federal drug war; that's the disaster -- trillions of dollars of expenditures," he said. "If you want to regulate drugs like alcohol, that is fine, that would be up to the state. That's quite a bit different than him demagoguing saying everybody wants to legalize drugs and that's why they support Ron Paul."
Gingrich agrees with Romney on "firing" comment
/ CBS News
UPDATED 5:55 p.m. ET
BEDFORD, N.H.--Newt Gingrich agreed on Tuesday with Mitt Romney that the former Massachusetts governor's controversial comment on firing people was taken out of context. But Gingrich said he's certain that his rival's campaign now is "clearly limping" no matter what happens in Tuesday night's primary.
Gingrich said he has declined to join in the GOP's fierce criticism of Romney for saying "I like being able to fire people" while making a point about health insurance. "On his comment yesterday on 'I like firing people,' once I saw the whole quote, I said that's not fair to take it out of context," Gingrich told network-news reporters during an interview aboard his campaign bus.
But the former House speaker predicted that even if Romney wins New Hampshire, as he is widely expected to do, he has sustained enough political damage to make it considerably harder for him going forward.
"We wanted to spend the last week defining Romney to make sure--there was a real danger coming out of Iowa that Romney was going to really sweep in a way that would be unstoppable," Gingrich said. "He bought a house here. He's lived here. He's campaigned here. My sense is, he's not going to get anywhere close to 50 percent, and this is his third-best state after Utah and Massachusetts, so if he can't come close to 50 percent here, it's very unlikely that he can sweep the nomination."
He added: "I think this campaigning for the last six days, I think everybody who's been here has felt a shift in mood, a shift in crowd size, the shift in media coverage. You know Romney came here as a victorious person, and I think he is clearly limping at this point."
Gingrich made clear he is increasingly staking his campaign on beating Romney in South Carolina, where the former Massachusetts governor leads in polls while Gingrich is battling Rick Santorum for second. "You can imagine three or four circumstances where we would go on to Florida [whose primary is Jan. 31] even if we came in second, but I think my goal is to come in first in South Carolina," he said.
Gingrich was also critical of Rep. Ron Paul, saying of the Texas congressman's ardent supporters: "They're young enthusiasts, and at some point people will figure out this is actually the legalize-drugs group."
Paul, asked to respond to Gingrich's remark on CNN, called his rival "completely off base."
"I just want to get rid of the federal drug war; that's the disaster -- trillions of dollars of expenditures," he said. "If you want to regulate drugs like alcohol, that is fine, that would be up to the state. That's quite a bit different than him demagoguing saying everybody wants to legalize drugs and that's why they support Ron Paul."