Newt Gingrich: “I could tell from the emotionalism of the attacks that those who are opposed to this bill did not have very many facts…”

“I could tell from the emotionalism of the attacks that those who are opposed to this bill did not have very many facts to work on so they decided to use rhetoric and symbolism. This bill is actually quite simple. It has a very simple premise: One should be an American citizen to participate in an American election. This is not a complicated idea. A person can be a black American as a citizen, I would say to my friend; they can be a yellow American citizen, a red American citizen, a white American citizen, a brown American citizen, they can be a tall American citizen, a short American citizen, but they should be an American citizen. We can have the full range of diversity. Persons may have emigrated from Fiji or emigrated from Ireland. I would say to my friend from Rhode Island, since I was a Doherty on my grandmother's side, certainly we want those Irish who are here legally to vote if they are citizens. But we do not want Irish who are here illegally, nor do we want anyone else who is here illegally to vote. I listened for a long time to rhetoric, now I think it is time to talk about what this bill is about. This is a narrowly drawn bill. The essence of this bill is simple and it is based, frankly, on the recommendations of the Secretary of State of California. The Secretary of State of California says there are people voting in California who are not citizens and he does not have the means to check them.”