White House Hits Gingrich In Official Blog

Newt Gingrich and Jon Stewart
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The Obama administration used the official White House blog today to criticize former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for a false claim he made last night on the Daily Show.

During the show, Gingrich attempted to defend the Bush administration for reading the Miranda rights to “shoe bomber” Richard Reid by claiming, falsely, that Reid is an American citizen. He used it in his argument that the Obama administration was wrong to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber.

“While Mr. Gingrich is certainly entitled to his opinions, he isn’t entitled to his own facts,” reads the blog post, written by Macon Phillips, new media director for the White House.

After a transcript of the relevant remarks, he goes on:

The truth, which has been widely reported, is that Richard Reid is a British citizen who was read his Miranda rights just minutes after being taken off of a plane that he tried to blow up. The same critics who are trying to score political points off of the failed Christmas Day attack today were silent when Reid was handled in the same way. Today, Richard Reid is serving a life sentence in Supermax prison.

Gingrich tweeted later today that he was thinking of Jose Padilla when he made the remark. Padilla was an American citizen who was arrested under different circumstances, as an enemy combatant, and much later convicted in civilian court.

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