Newt Gingrich is asked about the Occupy Wall Street movement at the Bloomberg debate in New Hampshire:
New Gingrich: "If they want to change things, the first thing to do is fire Bernanke, who is a disaster as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The second person to fire is Geithner. The fact is, in both the Bush and the Obama administrations the fix has been in. And I think it's perfectly reasonable to be angry. But let's be clear about who put the fix in. The fix was put in by the federal government. If you want to put people in jail, I want to second what Michele said, you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. And let's look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment and the politicians who put this country in trouble."
Charlie Rose, moderator: "Clearly, you're not saying they should go to jail?"
Gingrich: "Well, in Chris Dodd's case, go back to look at the Countryside deals. In Barney Frank's case, go back and look at the lobbyist who was close to Freddie Mac. All I'm saying is, everybody in the media who wants to go after the business community ought to start by going after the politicians who were at the heart of the sickness which is weakening this country and ought to start with Bernanke, who still has not been exposed for the hundreds of billions of dollars."
"I want to repeat this, Bernanke has in secret has spent hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out one group and not bailing another group. I don't see how anybody in the news media demanding the kind of transparency of the Fed that you would demand of every other aspect of the federal government. And I think it is corrupt and wrong for one man to have that kind of secret power."
