Newt Gingrich Calls Romney’s ‘Gifts’ Comment ‘Nuts’

Newt Gingrich has called Mitt Romney‘s now notorious “gifts” comment “nuts,” adding , “I mean, first of all, it’s insulting.” The former House Speaker made the comments on ABC on Sunday.

Gingrich was referring to comments Romney made that suggested he lost the election because President Barack Obama offered “gifts” to minorities and young voters, reports CNN. In response, Gingrich stated:

“The job of a political leader in part is to understand the people. If we can’t offer a better future that is believable to more people, we’re not going to win.”

The former speaker of the House who ran for the GOP nomination himself is not the only Republican to attack Romney either, as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal made his own comments this week.

Jindal stated that a winning strategy does not involve “insulting [voters] and saying their votes were bought.” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) agreed, adding , “rhetoric like this keeps digging a hole for the Republican Party.”

Yahoo! News adds that Newt Gingrich was initially “dumbfounded” by Obama’s victory in the election, but the disbelief quickly turned into disappointment with the campaign’s analysis. Gingrich added when speaking about Romney’s “gifts” statement:

“I’m very disappointed with Governor Romney’s analysis, which I believe is insulting and profoundly wrong. First of all, we didn’t lose Asian-Americans because they got any gifts. He did worse with Asian-Americans than he did with Latinos. This is the hardest-working and most successful ethnic group in America — they ain’t into gifts.”

Gingrich went on to say that, if Romney’s “gifts” comment were true, the Republican should have had his donors go “town-by-town and said, ‘Come here, let me give you gifts. Here are Republican gifts.’ An elephant coming in with gifts on it.”