According to a Fox News poll released yesterday, a significant plurality of Republican voters think Newt Gingrich is the most trustworthy candidate when it comes to nuclear weapons. 30% would most trust the former House Speaker with the nuclear codes, compared to 17% for Mitt Romney, who came in second place.
A 13% plurality of GOP voters said they would least trust Ron Paul with nuclear weapons — which may stem in large part from his reluctance to use them. Paul’s famously non-interventionist foreign policy beliefs have led him, for example, to say he wouldn’t use military force to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Gingrich has not stated an inclination to use nukes. But he has said that if “the dictatorship [in Iran] persists, you have to take whatever steps are necessary to break its capacity to have a nuclear weapon.”
One thing’s for sure: Newt Gingrich has seen plenty of good news lately. It seems he can now add trust on foreign policy to that list.
The Fox News poll was conducted from November 13th to the 15th. Its sample of 370 GOP primary voters carries a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.
