Newt Gingrich Vs. Jon Stewart

For the purpose of fairness, it should be pointed out that Newt did make a factual error. When Jon Stewart argued that the Republican criticism of Obama for mirandizing the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was unwarranted as the Bush administration had also mirandized the shoe bomber Richard Reid, Gingrich said “Richard Reid is an American citizen.” In fact, he is a British citizen.

What Gingrich should have said was what former Bush speechwriter Mark Thiessen has pointed out: "The Richard Reid attack came almost immediately after 9/11, long before we figured out that we had other options than handing him over to law enforcement. After that came Jose Padilla, who was arrested at the Chicago airport on a mission from KSM to blow up apartment buildings in the United States. He was taken out of the criminal-justice system, declared an illegal enemy combatant, and transferred to the Charleston brig for interrogation."

Bill Buck and Dana Perino further point out that Richard Reid "could have been subject to President Bush’s military order. In late December 2001, however, there were no military commissions in operation, Guantanamo was not yet open to hold detainees, and no one was being held in the U.S. as an enemy combatant." For their full discussion of what Bush did do, and would have done, had the underwear bomber been apprehended while he was President, visit http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzM0NDVjZjkzMGU0MTYxNGNlZjEwMDA3ZmE0YWIxYzk. Tweet