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Univision's Jorge Ramos was particularly effective in getting the Republican presidential candidates to say weird stuff Wednesday, pushing Mitt Romney to say, "I don't think people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican-American." Romney's dad was born in Mexico, Politico's Juana Summers reports, so Ramos pressed Romney to claim he was Mexican. Romney laughingly revealed his instant political calculations, saying, "I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary."
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Ramos goaded Newt Gingrich to wade further into his eat-the-rich attacks against Romney. When he asked Gingrich about Romney's idea that a lack of jobs would cause illegal immigrants to "self-deport," Univision reports Gingrich responded, "I think you have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatic — you know, $20 million a year of no work — to have a fantasy this far from reality. For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self deport. I mean, this is an Obama-level fantasy." Ramos then asked, why Gingrich wouldn't support the Dream Act, which would allow children of illegal immigrants who go to college or join the military to become citizens. He said he supported "half of the Dream Act": "They can go to college... I wasn’t suggesting we run around and try to deport them. I have suggested that if they want to become citizens, they can join the military."
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Ramos also pushed Gingrich into a lengthy discussion about that time he was impeaching the president for lying about an affair while having an affair himself, The New York Times' Trip Gabriel reports:
Mr. Ramos then suggested that Mr. Gingrich had been hypocritical, as House speaker, to lead impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair at a time he himself was in an adulterous relationship. “At the same time you were doing exactly the same thing,” Mr. Ramos said.
Mr. Gingrich pushed back, making the case that Mr. Clinton was impeached for lying under oath, a felony, not for an extramarital affair.
“I understand,” Mr. Ramos said, “but people think that’s hypocritical to criticize President Clinton for doing the same thing that you were doing at the same time.”
“O.K., there is some place there where there’s a mental synapse missing,” Mr. Gingrich said. “I didn’t do the same thing. I never lied under oath, I have never committed perjury, I have never been involved in a felony – he was.”
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