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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he personally pocketed about $35,000 per year for his work with mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
For the first time on Monday, Gingrich pegged his own personal earnings from an extended consulting contract between his firm and Freddie Mac. His namesake firm, the Gingrich Group, earned at least an estimated $1.6 million, according to an initial Bloomberg News report on the relationship.
"I hope, starting today, we can clear up this and frankly I hope my friends will take down the ads that are fundamentally inaccurate," Gingrich explained to supporters during a question-and-answer session with supporters in Iowa. "One, the contract. Freddie Mac hired Gingrich Group, which is a firm which had offices in three cities. Of the total contract, it was a six year period contract, of the total amount they keep talking about I probably got about $35,000 a year."
As if to minimize just how much he earned as a result of the contract, Gingrich said his yearly take-home from working with Freddie Mac was less than what he would earn in fees for delivering a single speech.
"Now that's less than I was making per speech so that's what my particular interest in it was that amount," he said.
The former speaker's work for the troubled mortgage giant, which was taken into government conservatorship in 2008 along with its counterpart, Fannie Mae, has emerged as a point of scrutiny for Gingrich's foes in the Republican presidential primary.
"For weeks now, Speaker Gingrich has struggled to explain exactly what he did in return for $1.6 million in fees from Freddie Mac," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email this morning to reporters. "Not only has he distanced himself from his past work, but he is also distancing himself from the money he earned -- saying it was for ‘overhead’ or that he didn’t ‘personally’ receive it."
Texas Rep. Ron Paul has also vocally criticized Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac, having highlighted that relationship in television ads running in Iowa.
Gingrich has repeatedly denied having lobbied on Freddie Mac's behalf, and sought to highlight work he had done that might have conflicted with the lender's financial interests.
"Both Congressman Rick Lazio, who was the Chairman of the House reform effort when I was the Speaker, and Congressman JC Watts, who was the head for a number of years of the Freddie Mac watch committee, have both come out publicly and said it is bologna to suggest that I any way tried to use any influence with anybody on the Freddie Mac issue," he said. "So I just want to come down to what did we provide. We provided strategic advice."
The total extent of how much wealth Gingrich might have gained as a result of the contract, though, is murky. Whatever fees were collected by the Gingrich Group could have contributed to building the value of the former speaker's consulting practice.
NBC's Chuck Todd has more.
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Talk about giving your opponents ammunition. Can't see how this can possibly help his campaign...
Liar,liar.liar pants on fire ! LOL
"Wow" Newt is flying high on "Viagra" in the polls, will this new sex drive help this lowlife get him into the White House ?????????????
35,000 grand to MUCH! Still means that HE worked for THEM and as a senior member of Congress must have had inside information that could have save TAX PAYERS billions of dollars. He took money from and gave millions of dollars in BONUSES to the CEO's who ran the company into the ground.
This DOES NOT let the DEMS off! They and Obama are as much to blame for robbing the American tax payer and giving it to those companies without a REAL investigation into the CEO's and making sure that they did NOT get one dime of tax payer money.
Maybe. But as newly placed in office weren't they thinking that the Bush stimulus package was based on truth and honesty. We were. At what point did they realize that they had been had too.? Now we are finding out that these companies were worse off than was thought. Did Bush know it and wait til the last minute to tell anyone. Maybe he needs to take a lie detector test? Maybe it is time for George Bush and Alan Greenspan and whoever else was involved to come clean. I bet it was a real schock when they got Obama in there who was not beholden to any lobbyist and that is why they hate him so. Nothing excuses Bush and the repubicans for the total mess they put our country in no matter why or how. And it would be nice if they started taking some responsiblity instead of blaming the person who was left with the mess to clean up. And think of this. They still could be in office covering it up. Except for President Obama. We needed him don't you think? And still do.
Maybe it is time for George Bush and Alan Greenspan and whoever else was involved to come clean.
Who ever else was involved has immunity since they are part of the current administration. It was Bush in 03 shouting the alarm and it was Barney Frank and Chris Dodd with Maxine Waters and Shirley Jackson Lee.
Good movie to watch, if you want to see it better explained... see Inside Job narrated by Matt Damon. Isn't it odd that none of these key players were ever indicted by the obama administration? Find out why.
Dear proudamerican veteran,
How exactly was Bush sounding the alarm? Was that what he was doing when he was bragging about the rate of home ownership and calling for an "ownership society"? By the way, you do realize that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were members of the minority in the House and Senate in 2003, don't you? Since that was in fact the case, how were they able to block the majority Republicans who chaired all the Committees and had the subpoena power from investigating Freddy and Fannie. Hmm. As long as we're here, why bother investigating them, when the real disaster was going on at Bear Stearns and Lehmann Brothers and AIG, who were not issuing mortgages?
Prove it, Newtie.
So a quarter of a million is better to receive from FAnnie and Freddie than 1.6 million which his business received. Why? The point was that he was a influencer. He was an influence peddler. Doesn't matter to me the amount. They were a big reason for our fiscal calamity and were advised or influence by whom. To the tuneof a quarter of a million now and are we sure that stopped after 6 years? I don't believe anything he says because on one side is doing one thing and on the other he is saying the opposite. Your 15 minutes is done Newt. Now it is Pauls turn.
Go Ron Paul!!!!
If this dough-boy brags one more time about how he couldn't be corrupt because he makes so much from his speaking engagements I am going to puke.
Newsflash Newtster!!!..............Greed knows no bounds.
This just shows how utterly tone-deaf Gingrich is. To almost every voter out there, $35k is a lot of money. Any one of us would be thrilled to be handed that much cash. To Gingrich, this is just chump change, so he doesn't understand why anyone should be concerned about where he got it.
Well Newt -- one thing is perfectly clear --- you did not get a PHD in math --- or truth telling.
First, he was paid as a "historian." Now it's for "strategic advice." He at first didn't deny the $1.6 million figure, now he says he personlly only got $35K (although it was his firm and I bet he got a "big" bonus for the firm's financial success...but let's not count that). If you took the words ending in "LY" out of his conversation, those teabaggers wouldn't think he was so darn smart!! He's even more of a narcissist than Palin. They should run on the same ticket. This planet wouldn't be big enough for those two egos. I need a drink.
Use the Newt for fishing bait :-0 The slimy, little amphibian is just a Trumped-up Koch sucker anyhow:))
Love your moniker!
That guy wouldn't wipe his ass for $35,000 a year.
Love the liberal sense of outrage. Rham Emmanuel- 10 million from Fannie Mae, , 35 million from Goldman Sachs. Franklin Raines, the CEO that ran Fannie into the ground, walked away with 90 million and right ino the White House with obama. Larry Summers, Clinton former Treasury Secretary and now obama's chief economic adviser, 48 million from Goldman Sachs and 9 million from Lehman Brothers. Chris Dodd, the friend of Angelo that got al of the sweetheart deals from Countrywide. Barney Frank, who fought to restructure the bonus payout out at Fannie and the Great Defender of Franklin Raines, well his b!t@h walked away with 74 million for three years. Odd that the Frank Dodd bill does not address ANY of the issues that led to the financial collapse.
Yeah Newt is really a bad guy compared to these civil servants.
Do you just make this stuff up or does FOX have an "app for that"??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hey Vet, I think you should stop by your rehab ?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Working for this corrupt government corporation is going to be tough for Newt to shake off.
Wasn't hard for the current administration was it?
Ahh yes, the GOP brilliant political strategy of "I know you are but what am I"??
Vet, we expect a higher standard from Conservatives.
The former Speaker's dick is showing. Also, he's a motherflocking liar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Throw the "BOOK" at Newt for his Dishonor"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
he must think were all stupid, and you want to know why Washington is what it is, and hes want to go back and make sure it stays that way...like most fed up and hopefully change will be comming, by pull levers at the poll to rid out the career politicians, have nothing to lose, but pulling the lever for hope.
That must have been some lousy "strategic advice" then, the whole housing economy collapsed.
Why is this guy still walking the streets peddling his BS..
The GOP Retards Eric Cantor & Mitch McConnell Called the G.I. BILL a Welfare, these clowns are a Dishonor to this Nation.
It would not take a financial specialist to see his records on the amount of money he earned in those days and[TO SEE IF HE DECLARED IT] on his income tax records.If it doesn't match his rhetoric he may be indicted for false income tax returns.America cannot trust Gingrich as far as they can throw him. His porky pig stature would make the distance real short if at all. Newt we know you for years ,quit trying to con us again.
Guys like Newt, Dodd, Rham Emmanuel and so on are all part of the system of government corruption. They obviously make good money being in government or they wouldn't make a career out of it. Despite all that, what we need to do is pick someone for President from our limited options, aka...the lesser of all these corruption evils, that has the most leadership experience and yet, won't run the country into the ground. The GOP field is weak at the moment and Obama is an absolute failure at his job. Unfortunately I think we will be voting between Dumb and Dumber again in 2012 just like we had to in 2008.
I haven't voted for a candidate from a major political party in the last 3 presidential elections and by the looks of this crowd that trend is going to continue.
I hope the Grinch get the GOP nod. It would be a landslide for Obama.
Also with Gary Johnson running idependent Obama should take NM very easily.
$35k Really Newt? Gee whiz that's only half a speech!
Hey folks....there is a bright spot to all of this......since these Repub jokers they call candidates started their campaigns we haven't had to read or listen to much about Sarah Palin.......now that's a good thing.
Can't the Repubs find somebody that can give Obama a run for his money? Is it really that hard to do? If you can't win this year..........your chances of ever winning again are slim.
I was actually hoping she'd run, and get the nomination. It would show how stupid republicans are, in more ways than one. Seriously, I think that if McCain had chosen someone else as his running mate, there's a huge chance Obama would have lost. But with Palin running, it's near 100% certainty that Obama would win.
I'm with you... I'd like to see a worthwhile republican candidate up there.
By the way......Newty lied to his family for years, but I'm sure he wouldn't lie to us. If he say it's $35,000 I believe him. AHAHAHAHAHAHA