Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul ripped fellow candidate Newt Gingrich Sunday for taking $1.6 million from the government-sponsored Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, otherwise known as Freddie Mac.

During Saturday night’s GOP debate in Iowa, Paul scored one of the cleanest attacks on Gingrich for raking in big bucks in his role as “historian” for Freddie Mac.

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“The other thing that really should annoy a lot of people, he received a lot of money from Freddie Mac,” Paul asserted. “So in a way, Newt, I think you probably got some of our taxpayers’ money. They got money and they’re still getting bailed out. But you were a spokesmen for them and you received money.”

For his part, Gingrich has denied that he ever acted as a spokesman or a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, which he claims was part of the “private sector.”

On Sunday, NBC host David Gregory asked Paul if Gingrich should apologize and give the money back.

“Well, legally he doesn’t have to,” Paul admitted. “But I would think, morally, him having received this money, yes. I wouldn’t have taken their money. Just for the fact that I think it was an immoral thing to take money.”

The Texas Republican added: “Besides I don’t like this idea that you are going to influence somebody that is a pseudo-government agency. … It was as far as I’m concerned about as close to the government as you can get — and to call that private is not exactly accurate.”

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Watch this video from NBC’s Meet the Press, broadcast Dec. 11, 2011.