Newt Gingrich Calls Japan 'Brilliant' on Pearl Harbor Day

Newt Gingrich praises Japan on Pearl Harbor Day.

Newt Gingrich
WikiCommons

Newt Gingrich at Conservative Political Action Conference February 2015.

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich, one-time presidential hopeful and former Speaker of the House, commemorated Pearl Harbor Day, when Japan attacked a U.S. naval base, by tweeting in praise of Japan calling its attack “brilliant.” Gingrich has said his fair share of surprising quotes this year, like when he said white people “don’t understand being black in America.” More recently, Gingrich told Fox News host Megyn Kelly she was “fascinated with sex” during an interview about the sexual assault allegations launched against Donald Trump.

In a series of tweets, Gingrich talked about the 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor, and Hawaii and Japan’s “professional brilliance” in the 1941 surprise attack. The attack killed 2,403 Americans and injured 1,178 more, leading to the U.S. involvement in World War II.

75 years ago the Japanese displayed professional brilliance and technological power launching surprises from Hawaii to the Philippines
Japanese planning and trainng let them also carry out surprise attacks in Hong Kong and Malaysia.It was widest surprise attack in history

Twitter was baffled and then outraged by Gingrich’s tweets on the 75th anniversary of the event.  

What in the entire whole F***??? https://t.co/0ZQmWEGC7m
"Hey folks, Newt here. 75 years ago the Japanese brilliantly killed a lot of Americans. So cool. Let's celebrate with some Cinnabons." pic.twitter.com/oMHoWehsS6
Hey @newtgingrich this is how you do a Pearl Harbor tweet. https://t.co/uK8m97itPh
Well, time to take a break from baseball and see what else is going on in the wo— https://t.co/vR3olEFbC3
So @newtgingrich chose today of all days to insult the memory of over 2400 servicemen who lost their lives. #DeleteYourAccount https://t.co/H3Cn1xcLM5
@newtgingrich
Thank you for such uplifting words in rememberance of the 2000 AMERICAN LIVES lost, 1000 wounded at Pearl Harbor. pic.twitter.com/Sv213AJdiP
This is Newt Gingrich's tweet on the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor - imagine the Republican reaction if Obama tweeted this. https://t.co/EF1nbBfBQA

Gingrich hasn’t tweeted anything after his comments to clarify what he meant. Gingrich was previously rumored to have been in the running to be Trump’s running mate and in July he admitted he was being vetted by Trump’s team. After Trump’s win, Gingrich’s name came up again for Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of State. Bet Trump’s happy he didn’t go with with Gingrich for VP.  

The president-elect commemorated Pearl Harbor Day in a post referring to the people killed in the attack as “heroes.” Trump wrote, “Their shared sacrifice reminds us of the great costs paid by those who came before us to secure the liberties we enjoy, and inspires us to rise to meet the new challenges that stand before us today.”

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