Newt Gingrich said Jack Welch's conspiracy theory about the latest jobs report is "worth looking at" on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday. On Friday, Welch had argued that the Obama administration had doctored the latest job numbers for political reasons.
Though he called this particular theory "plausible but irrelevant" and admitted the report would be a "significant help" to Obama's re-election campaign, Gingrich also said Welch's words are worthy of consideration because they point to a broad public distrust of the current administration.
“It rings true to people ... You have a president of the United States so deeply distrusted by people like Jack Welch ... who is hardly a right-winger," Gingrich said. He added that it was noteworthy that, when positive job numbers were released, "Welch instantaneously assumes this is the Chicago machine."
Former Obama press secretary and current senior adviser Robert Gibbs appeared side-by-side with Gingrich and wasted no time in shooting the "absolutely crazy" theory down.
"The notion, quite frankly, that somebody as well-respected as Jack Welch would go on television and single-handedly embarrass himself—it's incredibly dangerous," Gibbs said. He said any believers in that theory probably "assume that the real jobs report is somewhere safe in Nairobi with the President's Kenyan birth certificate."
