Tipsheet

Newt Gingrich on NC Protests: "This is an American Tragedy"

During the intense and violent protests last night in Charlotte, North Carolina, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was a guest on the "Kelly File" and ripped Barack Obama and Democrats for their abandoning the black community.  

“Fifty-three years after Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech; eight years after the election of an African-American president…race relations are decaying in this country,” he said.

He mentioned one point that hardly anyone talks about in which police brutality is but a small problem African-Americans face.  "Part of the reason for that young woman's anger is way beyond violence... schools that don’t work, neighborhoods with no jobs, random violence, a sense of being powerless even though there is an African-American president,” Gingrich said.  "Her anger is not just about the problem with police violence, she has a life that has no future.  She has a life where she's going to have a hard time getting a job, a hard time living in a safe neighborhood, and a hard time being able to go out and get an education she ought to be getting."

He lamented the fact that major Democratic leaders have not intently reacted to repeated events of anti-police protests and urban violence.

“Over 3,000 people shot in Chicago…but no national reaction: Obama doesn’t notice it, Clinton doesn’t notice it.”

“The country at large will not tolerate this kind of random violence. People will not tolerate looting, closing Interstate 85, and burning things.”