As ThinkProgress has been reporting, GOP contender Newt Gingrich has built up quite the record of making derogatory, racially-charged remarks on the campaign trail. He frequently derides President Obama as a “food stamp president,” and said he would go to the NAACP and tell African-Americans they should “demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.” More than 40 Catholic leaders recently challenged Gingrich to “stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes” with his divisive rhetoric.
Last night, Gingrich’s most prominent surrogate, former Communications Director Rick Tyler, went on the offensive during an MSNBC interview with Rachel Maddow and the Rev. Al Sharpton when asked about his candidate’s racial rhetoric. He accused the anchors of “race-baiting,” and claimed Democrats are hurting African-Americans:
TYLER: It’s baloney. MSNBC ought to get off this race-baiting kick…The Republican Party was founded by Abraham Lincoln…this was started as a civil rights party. If you go back to the 1856 Democratic platform it’s a racist platform…The Democratic Party — you can ask Al Sharpton about that, I think he would agree that the Democrats have failed in the public schools with the African-Americans. They abort their babies. They’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty.
Watch it:
Sharpton retorted that it was Gingrich who was making race an issue in the campaign by singling out minorities for excoriation in his speeches.
Tyler resigned over Gingrich’s infamous Greek cruise, but has reemerged as the head of his Sheldon Aldelson-funded SuperPAC, Winning Our Future.
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