Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich acknowledged Wednesday night that a hard-hitting ad from Mitt Romney accusing President Obama of gutting welfare reform was probably stretching the truth and said if he were the candidate, would have worded the ad differently.
On CNN, Anderson Cooper quoted a portion of the ad to Gingrich which claims, “you wouldn't have to have to train for a job, they just send you your welfare check," and asked: "That is not factually correct?"
Gingrich responded, saying, “We have no proof today, but I would say to you under Obama's ideology it's absolutely true that he would be comfortable sending a lot of people checks for doing nothing. I believe that totally.”
Earlier in the interview, Gingrich said that the bald assertions in the ad would have been softened if he had final say. “This is a political ad," he said. "In 30 seconds, you tend not to get all the various amendments and things.”
Various fact checkers have found the claims in the ad to be untrue. PolitiFact awarded it with its most dubious distinction: "Pants on Fire."
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