Newt Gingrich says "George Soros' Money" is the "Number One Problem."
Former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who served as Speaker of the House in the late 1990s, tried to blame violence at protests on “George Soros’ Money” in an interview on Fox News.
“The number one problem in almost all these cities is George Soros-elected, left-wing, anti-police, pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up.”
“Progressive district attorney are anti-police, pro-criminal and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’ money and they’re a major cause of the violence we’re seeing, because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the streets.”
After Fox News host Melissa Francis suggested that George Soros did not need to be brought into this discussion, Gingrich replied: “He paid for it! I mean, why can’t we discuss the fact that millions of dollars he spends.” Francis’ co-host, Mari Harf, informed Gingrich that he was incorrect and agreed that Soros was not relevant to the conversation. Gingrich responded “Okay. So it’s verboten,” using the German word for “forbidden.”
Gingrich is aware that such comments are viewed as antisemitic. One week prior, he tweeted angrily about accusations of antisemitism against Republicans who fear-monger about George Soros:
George Soros is a Holocaust survivor and a Jewish philanthropist who donates to liberal causes. The political right frequently casts him as an international puppet master, drawing on ugly stereotypes and antisemitic conspiracy theories about a global Jewish cabal secretly controlling world affairs.
Jewish Leftists have increasingly called out the antisemitism of Republican politicians demonizing Soros, and some politicians have begun responding. One month before Gingrich tweeted defensively about accusations of antisemitism, extremist Republican congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene — who regularly refers to Soros as an “enemy of the people” — posted a similar sentiment: “The media calls me an anti semite [sic] for calling out Soros…I call fake news the enemy of the people.”
This was not Gingrich’s first time attempting to defend Republicans from accusations of antisemitism. In 2016, Gingrich defended Trump’s final and infamous antisemitic campaign ad, as well as Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Gingrich said of Bannon: “He was a managing partner of Goldman Sachs. He was a Hollywood movie producer,” offering Bannon’s time working in two fields stereotypically associated with Jews as ‘proof’ that the Trump strategist couldn’t be antisemitic.
Despite Gingrich’s repeated efforts to defend Republicans from valid charges of antisemitism, he has also joined Republican efforts to use accusations of antisemitism against progressive movements and people of color. In July of 2020, Gingrich quoted and co-signed a fellow Georgian Republican, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) smearing the Black Lives Matter movement as antisemitic:
Loeffler consistently attacked the Black Lives Matter movement with this accusation throughout the summer of 2020. Her attacks reduced Jews to a political tool and put Jews in the stereotypical “middleman” position, using Jews to attack a powerful Black-led movement for liberation. Attempting to divide Jewish and Black communities (communities that are not mutually exclusive) is both anti-Black and antisemitic.