AMY GOODMAN: Well, Juan, you never know who you’re going to run into at these parties. After talking to Hoffa and RNC Chair Jim Nicholson, we spotted a familiar mop of white hair. No, it wasn’t Phil Donahue. It was Newt Gingrich, the key person in creating the Contract on America, the leader of the Republican revolution. Many people fear George W. Bush will be taking up that mantle. The issue of reproductive rights has been raised consistently here in the protests in the streets of Philadelphia, hundreds of people arrested yesterday as demonstrators attempt to block delegates from boarding buses for the convention, stop them from conducting business as usual. Newt Gingrich himself was surrounded by protesters one day when he happened to just walk by them, before he was rescued by police. Well, I —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and, interestingly, he was in the company of Kenny Gamble, the record mogul, as they were touring some economic development projects in a Black community in South Philadelphia.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I had a chance to see him, as well. But I thought we’d give a little context to the conversation that I had with Newt Gingrich, because, see, back in 1995, when Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House, I had an interesting conversation with him about the war on women. We’re going to introduce that little interaction with the news piece that introduced it, which was the news anchor at the time, Verna Avery-Brown.

VERNA AVERY-BROWN: The usually unflappable speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, was knocked a bit off stride today during his daily speaker’s conference, when Pacifica reporter Amy Goodman raised the issue of whether Republicans are waging an unofficial war against women with their welfare reform efforts.

AMY GOODMAN: I have a question about tone. You were talking about that earlier. Many people are talking about what’s going on in the House as a war on women, that most of the poor are women, the whole issue about reproductive rights that keeps getting raised. But this is a question not about legislation. Some say you really fired the opening salvo against women when you didn’t apologize to American women for calling the first lady a bitch. Why haven’t you apologized?

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: I never said — I never said — I never agreed to say anything about that. And I can’t imagine you’re asking this question.

AMY GOODMAN: Why haven’t you apologized for that?

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: I’ve talked to Mrs. Clinton. She understands exactly where we’re —

AMY GOODMAN: Why haven’t you apologized to American women? Because it goes beyond calling someone —

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: I never said — I never said — to the best my knowledge, I never said what you just said. OK.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re calling your mother a liar, then?

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: No, I’m calling you a remarkably foolish person for having that kind of a conversation here, and I’m very sorry you would — you would care to bring what Connie Chung did back into the public arena. Connie Chung lied to my — 

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, why are you —

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Connie Chung lied to my mother.

AMY GOODMAN: She said —

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: You’re now trying to exploit a lie by a professional reporter to my mother.

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, your mother said it to more [inaudible] — 

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: And I’m not going to take any more comment from you. I think it is very embarrassing that you, as a reporter, would try to take any use of Connie Chung having lied to my mother. I think you should be ashamed.

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, your mother said it to more reporters than Connie Chung.

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: I think you should be — 

AMY GOODMAN: It’s not about Connie Chung.

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Yes, it is.

AMY GOODMAN: Why haven’t you apologized to American women for calling [inaudible] —

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Because I — because I didn’t — I’ll say it one more time. You’re trying to use my mother in what I think is a very despicable way.

AMY GOODMAN: Your mother said something, and we are responding to what she said.

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: And I am very — I think it is very sad, and I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of precisely this kind of exploitation by people like you. Next question.

REPORTER: Mr. Speaker?

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Yes, sir.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Newt Gingrich in 1995 at speaker’s conference, which had been going on for many years. The speaker would hold a news conference every day. He ended it soon after that. Apparently, he blamed it on that interaction, among a few others. I thought it was more to do with the bombing of the Oklahoma City building. It happened just after that that he canceled the speaker’s conference, because his rhetoric sounded too much like those that surrounded Timothy McVeigh. But anyway, I had a chance to follow up on the conversation when I met Newt Gingrich at Jimmy Hoffa’s party.

AMY GOODMAN: … doing now?

NEWT GINGRICH: I’m spending about half my time learning, and then I am at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution studying. And I have a consulting firm called the Gingrich Group, and I have a website called Newt.org, and I’m a commentator on Fox. So, I’m not bored.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you’re a commentator. Well, let me ask you for this comment. You’re on national television now. Will you apologize to American women for calling the first lady a bitch?

NEWT GINGRICH: I never did that. That’s just plain false.

AMY GOODMAN: Your mother said you did.

NEWT GINGRICH: I — no, she did not say I did. That’s just false. Go back and read the record. What you just said is false.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we heard her telling Connie Chung —

NEWT GINGRICH: And I’m, frankly, offended. And I’m, frankly, offended that you would say that.

AMY GOODMAN: You said you —

NEWT GINGRICH: I did not say that. Go back and look at the record.

AMY GOODMAN: But your mother said you said it.

NEWT GINGRICH: No, she didn’t. Go back and look at the record. You have it exactly backwards. And I find it very offensive that you would bring up my mother, as I found it offensive when Connie Chung brought up my mother. And I think it’s nuts for the national news media to pick on people who are clearly amateurs who, in my mother’s case, had opened her home. My father had baked a cake. They were thrilled to be open. And she was exploited by a reporter. And I think it’s very offensive that you would try to exploit my mother, which is what you just did.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it was your mother who said that you had called —

NEWT GINGRICH: No, she didn’t say that. Listen to what I said.

AMY GOODMAN: She did say it.

NEWT GINGRICH: She did not say that I called her that.

AMY GOODMAN: She did say it. But then, my question is, you were talking about the Contract with America.

NEWT GINGRICH: I have nothing to say to you. If you’re telling me what my mother said, that’s pretty offensive.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, she said it on national television.

NEWT GINGRICH: No, she didn’t.

AMY GOODMAN: As you were describing —

NEWT GINGRICH: No. There’s no more — there’s no more — 

AMY GOODMAN: As you were just — 

NEWT GINGRICH: No.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, no, I have a fair question to ask —

NEWT GINGRICH: No.

AMY GOODMAN: — and I’d like you to respond to.

NEWT GINGRICH: No.

AIDE: There are many people here who are interested in talking to him. We don’t need you. You know, we’re friendly people. We don’t need — you’re being rude, just not nice.

AMY GOODMAN: I’m not being rude. I’m asking a very serious question.

AIDE: OK, well, we’re not going to — we’re not talking about it anymore.

AMY GOODMAN: And that was the interaction with Newt Gingrich at the Jimmy Hoffa party that was sponsored by the Republicans. When we come back, we’re going to talk to some mothers. And we are here at the Independent Media Center in Philadelphia. You’re listening to Pacific Radio’s Democracy Now!