'It is very difficult in America today,” Gingrich told MSNBC. Gingrich: Elections rigged for the rich

Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that elections are “rigged, frankly, in favor of the wealthy.”

“It is very difficult in America today,” he told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton. “If you look at New York where Mayor Bloomberg spent an extraordinary amount of personal money to buy the mayor’s office for the third time. It is fairly hard to compete with a billionaire if — if they get to spend all the money they want and the middle-class candidate’s raising money in $2,500 units. So I think the current system is rigged, frankly, in favor of the wealthy.”


Gingrich added that election laws “ought to be reformed by saying any American can give any amount of after-tax personal income to the candidate as long as they report it every night on the internet. If you had that kind of a system you would have less negative attack ads because the candidates just simply wouldn’t do it. You would have more accountability and middle-class candidates could balance off rich candidates.”

Sharpton also challenged Gingrich on his comments during the campaign about food stamps, asking the former presidential contender if he was “just playing to the right wing” with “racially tinged language.”

“Well, let me start with my surprise that having a conservative Republican who actually cares that there’s 43 percent black teenage employment, I would think is a good thing,” Gingrich said. “Having a conservative Republican who’s eager to go the NAACP and meet with them and talk about real issues I would think is a good thing. I’d say the same thing about La Raza and my concern for Latinos who are unemployed. It is a fact in America, as you know, and you’ve talked about that when you have hard times, they are harder for ethnic minorities than they are for whites. We need a greater level of concern.”