Immigration was a recurring theme.
Gingrich said Romney was misleading when he ran an ad accusing the former House speaker of once referring to Spanish as “the language of the ghetto.’’ Gingrich claimed he was referring to a multitude of languages, not just Spanish.
Romney initially said, “I doubt it’s mine,’’ but moderator Wolf Blitzer read it aloud and pointed out that Romney, at the ad’s conclusion, says he approved the message.
As for immigration policy, it was difficult to discern their differences.
Both men said they want to clamp down in illegal immigration, create programs to make sure jobs go only to legal immigrants and deport some of the 11 million men and women in the country unlawfully.
Gingrich has never said how many illegal residents he believes should be deported, preferring to say that the United States is not going to begin rounding up grandmothers and grandfathers who have lived in the United States for years.
Romney agreed that was the case — and Gingrich said that marked a switch in position.
“Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers,’’ Romney said. “Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants would like to have.’’
Romney and Gingrich also exchanged jabs over investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two mortgage giants that played a role in the national foreclosure crisis that has hit Florida particularly hard.
Gingrich said Romney was making money from investments in funds that were “foreclosing on Floridians.’’
Romney quickly noted that Gingrich, too, was invested in mutual funds with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He then added that the former House speaker “was a spokesman’’ for the two. That was a reference to a contract that one of Gingrich’s businesses had for consulting services. The firm was paid $300,000 in 2006.
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Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
