Giuliani: Gingrich’s Anti-Romney Attacks ‘Ignorant, Dumb’
Published at
Richard Ellis/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Add Rudy Giuliani to the list of Republicans who think Newt Gingrich and his super PAC have gone too far with their attacks on Mitt Romney’s business record.
The former New York City mayor went on Fox News on Thursday to call Gingrich’s line of attack “ignorant, dumb,” and something he’d expect from Saul Alinsky, the late Chicago activist who preached confrontation to ignite political change.
“What the hell are you doing, Newt?” Giuliani said on Fox and Friends. “The stuff you’re saying is one of the reasons we’re in this trouble now. This whole ignorant populist view of the economy that was proven to be incorrect with the Soviet Union with Chinese communism.”
Gingrich has lambasted Romney over the past few weeks for killing jobs during his tenure as the head of Bain Capital. A pro-Gingrich super PAC is out with a 28-minute documentary this week that accuses Romney of being a “corporate raider” who made big profits for investors while laying off workers.
“I’m shocked at what they are doing,” Giuliani said of Perry and Gingrich. “It’s ignorant, dumb, it is building something we should be fighting in America: ignorance of the economic system, playing on the dumbest most ridiculous ideas about how you grow jobs.”
Giuliani added: “What they are doing to Mitt right now is totally, absolutely unfair and bad for the Republican Party.”
The anti-Romney documentary will be broken up into shorter segments for a $3.4 million ad-buy that will air both on South Carolina television and nationally on radio.
“Was Mitt Romney a job creator, or a corporate raider? That’s the question conservatives are asking,” the radio ad’s announcer intones darkly. “Like a vulture, he hunted for vulnerable companies. He took them over, loaded them with debt and collected whopping fees. He cut costs and cut jobs, and picked at the remains.”
Rick Perry delved into a Gingrich-style line of attack against Romney’s business career Tuesday, saying Romney was involved in “vulture capitalism.” By Wednesday morning Perry had removed that line from his stump speech.
Gingrich, on the other hand, said Thursday he will not back off his “crony capitalism” characterization of Romney.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio