President Donald Trump's correction on statements he made during his Monday press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin were "important," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday, just two days after he'd tweeted that Trump's initial comments about Russian meddling was the "most serious mistake of his presidency."
"I thought that his correction was important,' Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "I frankly think he could give a major speech and put it in context...I was as direct as I was the other day because I thought it was important to get his attention."
On Monday Trump's commented that "President Putin says it's not Russia; I don't see any reason why it would be," when asked whether he believed his own intelligence agencies over the Russian president. However, on Tuesday, the president said the comment should have been "would not" instead of "would."
"He is not a guy, as you know, he is not a guy who likes to correct himself or likes to admit he made a mistake," said Gingrich, who in his tweet had also called for the president to "clarify" the comment. "I thought this was big enough one that he simply had to stop and set the record straight."
Trump came under fire from several officials from former President Barack Obama's administration, pointed out Gingrich, including ex-CIA Director John Brennan, who labeled Trump as a "traitor" following Monday's press conference.
"Those are the guys in charge in 2016, so their hysteria and strong language, they are the failures," said Gingrich, later calling Brennan a "total disgrace."
"Trump was a candidate," said Gingrich. "He wasn't in charge of national security. They were and they failed."
Obama, Gingrich continued, was "very weak in Ukraine," but Trump authorized the sale of weapons to Ukrainians to defend themselves.
"Trump has expelled 60 Russian intelligence people from the United States," said Gingrich. "He has closed four Russian offices in the United States. He went to NATO to do what? To get them to increase their spending so they would be stronger in containing Russia. He lectured the chancellor of Germany about what? About buying natural gas from Russia and propping up Putin."
After all that, "to suggest that somehow Trump is some patsy for Putin requires you to deny everything that he has done and that's why correcting that one mistake, I thought, was very important," said Gingrich.
He also took issue with comments from former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta, who told NBC's Brian Williams Tuesday that Trump acts like Russia may "have something on him."
"I would like to know why when he was advising Obama they didn't provide offensive weapons to Ukraine,' said Gingrich. "Why they didn't do the things to increase spending at NATO? I just think all of a sudden have you this revisionist history in the left. The fact is that Obama was totally ineffective. Hillary Clinton's reset button was a joke. They gave the Russians access to uranium that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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