Coming before supporters after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night, Newt Gingrich jabbed at opponents Ron Paul and Mitt Romney -- saying he reserves the right to "tell the truth."
Gingrich called Paul's views on foreign policy "stunningly dangerous for the survival of the United States." He described himself as a Reagan conservative "who is into changing Washington" -- in contrast to Romney, whom he decried as a "Massachusetts moderate who in fact will be pretty good at managing the decay, but has given no evidence in his years as Massachusetts [governor] of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure or change the governnment."
"We are not going to go out and run nasty ads," Gingrich said. "But I do reserve the right to tell the truth. And if the truth seems negative-- that may be more a comment on his record than it is on politics."
Gingrich has been indirectly disparaging the ads taken out by a super PAC supporting Romney that spent roughly $3 million on negative ads attacking him. Gingrich called Romney a "liar" earlier in the day for insisting he had no role in the barrage of negative ads.
Gingrich praised opponent Rick Santorum for a "great, positive campaign."
"I wish I could say that for all the candidates," he said.
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