When Newt Gingrich was campaigning in California earlier this week, he stopped by the Hoover Institution where he sat down for an interview with Research Fellow Peter Robinson.
Early on in the interview, Gingrich accused the Obama administration of waging “war on religion” and Robinson later asked Gingrich if he really meant to use the word “war” and gave him an opportunity to take it back and clarify.
But Gingrich was having none of it, standing by his use of the phrase while accusing the Obama Administration of believing that President Obama is superior to the Pope and being part of a half-century long campaign by “secularists [to] get between man and God”:
Robinson: You mentioned a moment ago that the Obama Administration had declared “war”on religion in America, particularly on the Catholic Church. I’m just going to give you a moment to take back the word “war.”
Gingrich: Well, listen …
Robinson: Do you want to?
Gingrich: No. I think that it’s very clear that this is an administration which believes that secular government – they believe that the President is superior to the Pope in the ability to define what the church is allowed to do.
Obama’s position, which is truly dishonest – this new compromise is, I mentioned Orwell’s “1984.” this is Orwellian … We have been through a fifty year period, starting in the 1960s, in which the courts, and the bureaucracies, and now the politicians have waged war on religious freedom in America. And I think we need to understand this is just one more phase in an ongoing assault on Christianity and on Judaism and on organized religion by secularists who believe that they have the right to get between man and God.
