Gingrich Calls Santorum ‘Big Labor Republican’
Published at
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Newt Gingrich is spending the next couple of days on his campaign bus traveling from Tennessee to Georgia, trying to appeal for Super Tuesday votes. While Gingrich hasn’t gone after Rick Santorum a lot in his stump speeches in the past, Gingrich on Monday hit Santorum, who is leading in the polls in Tennessee.
“He has had two weeks of being the alternative,” Gingrich said. “The fact is, I think there are profound reasons that Rick lost his Senate race in Pennsylvania history in 2006 and I think it is very hard for him to carry that all the way to the general.”
Gingrich said Santorum has “national news media momentum,” and the race is going back through another cycle with a new front-runner.
“Santorum was fourth place for three consecutive states. He did something very intelligent. He took all of his resources, he skipped South Carolina, Florida, and Nevada, he went to three states nobody else was in, won the three states, one of which was a disaster for Romney because he dropped from 60 to 35 in Colorado,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich said Santorum is a “big labor Republican” and would have a hard time competing in the South because he “voted for the unions over FedEx.”
“I suspect when you get to Memphis and you say this is a guy who wanted to guarantee that FedEx gave in to the unions, Santorum won’t be as popular the following morning,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich predicted that after a good day on Super Tuesday, he will go on to win both Mississippi and Alabama, making him the front-runner once again.
“I think we will win both those states the following week. And then, all of a sudden, the same media, which said I was dead in the fall, I was ahead in December, I was dead in early January, I was ahead in mid-January, all of a sudden some of them are going to say, some were saying yesterday, Gingrich will be back again,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich was heckled by protestors who yelled “mic check” at Gingrich and interrupted his speech. The protesters yelled at Gingrich to stop ignoring the LGBT community.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio