Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is the latest critic to call out Newt Gingrich over his $1.6 million dollar consulting contract with Freddie Mac.
In an interview with NBC’s David Gregory, Abramoff labeled Gingrich as a symbol of the corruption that dominates Washington politics.
“I don’t know if he’ll survive this,” Abramoff surmised. “This is a very big thing.”
“He is doing, and engaging in the exact kind of corruption that America disdains. The very things that anger the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement and everybody who is not in a movement and watches Washington and says why are these guys getting all this money, why do they go become so rich, why do they have these advantages? Unfortunately Newt seems to play right into it,” he said.
Abramoff also criticized Gingrich’s defense that he served Freddie Mac as a historian, saying, “I’m unaware of any history professor being paid that much money to give someone a history lesson.”
Gingrich landed in hot water for his misleading answer about his employment with Freddie Mac during last week’s presidential debate. Both Democrats and some of his rivals for the Republican nomination have criticized Gingrich’s actions, but no one is likely to raise more eyebrows than Abramoff.
Abramoff served three years in prison on corruption and conspiracy charges, and he is the most prominent example of the largely unchecked corruption of lobbying in Washington. When he is criticizing your campaign for being corrupt, you know you have a problem.
Video of Gregory’s interview with Abramoff is below. The portion discussing Gingrich starts at the 5:20 mark.
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