Newt Gingrich: ‘The Government Owes It to the American People To Be Able to Visit Their National Capital Without Being Afraid’

EXCERPT:

GINGRICH: “Look, you cannot have a city that has rampant crime and expect it to have economic growth, expect jobs to come in, and frankly, expect citizens to want to live there. Washington is a unique case because it is the national capital. It’s in the Constitution. And I think the government owes it to the American people to be able to visit their national capital without being afraid. So, I think you start with the idea that there’s no real level of violence tolerable in Washington, D.C. As Speaker, we did a lot of things to take over the city. We rebuilt its capacity. We have strengthened its police force. We passed your kind of tax cuts which encourage new jobs, new business, people to buy, come back into the city and buy houses. There was a huge renaissance from the time we took over, which lasted about 10 or 12 years.”