Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul told reporters in a New Hampshire grocery store Thursday that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is being a “free ride” by sex-obsessed journalists.
Paul explained that a pointed attack ad released by his campaign Wednesday was necessary because the media’s coverage of the GOP horse race “is way out of whack.”
“I think that he’s getting a free ride,” Paul said, according to Boston NPR station WBUR. “And I’ve worked with him for a long time. And I think the points I made on the various issues, he’s a flip-flopper, so he can hardly be the alternative to Mitt Romney.”
“What I find is a shame is look at the amount of energy the media put into talking about sex,” Paul explained. “And how much energy does the media put into exposing what a Newt Gingrich believes and what he’s done?”
The ad attacks Gingrich for changing his political positions on a range of issues, including global warming and an individual health insurance mandate. It reminds viewers that Gingrich called Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed budget “right-wing social engineering,” and knocks him for accepting $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac despite publicly criticizing the mortgage giant.
The libertarian favorite faulted the media for devoting “90 percent” of its attention to the string of salacious sexual harassment stories against businessman Herman Cain. “Not that doesn’t deserve some reporting and people don’t deserve to know about that,” he added.