Welcome back to politics nation, continuing now with our live interview with Newt Gendrich, former Speaker of the House and recent candidate for the Republican nomination. This is Gendrich. During the campaign, you said some questionable things about poor people in this country. Listen. The fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any President of American history. If the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps. We really want to create a pathway to work for people. When you have 43% black teenage unemployment, there's a very, very severe challenge of making sure that people get the work habit. If you look at the largest urban housing projects, you'll find areas that have remarkably few people who have work experience. Now Mr. Gendrich, you know you should have known better and I think you do know better because we travel together at the suggestion of President Obama. And so I have to ask you, is this kind of talk, this kind of language you use? Just playing to the right wing, you're playing to the far right is David Gregory asked you with racially tensed language. Do you still defend now what you said? Well, let me start with my surprise that having a conservative Republican who actually cares that there's 43% black teenage unemployment, I would think is a good thing. Having a conservative Republican who's eager to go to the NAACP and meet with him and talk about real issues, I would think is a good thing. I'd say the same thing about LaRaza and my concern for Latinos who are unemployed. It is a fact in America, as you know and as you've talked about, the one you have hard times, they're harder for ethnic minorities than they are for whites. We need a greater level of concern. Sure, I don't disagree with any of that about if you had a conservative that was concerned. What I disagree with is when we have facts that are not correct. Let's deal with the facts. The facts are, there are more whites on food stamps than blacks. 49% of the people on food stamps in 2010 were white. Only 26% black, 20% Hispanic. You didn't go to a white convention or say you would go there and tell them to go for paychecks and not food stamps. And to call the president of food stamp president, I mean it's like this ratio of life. To say that people don't have people that are role models, you and I went to South Philly, you saw parents that take their kids to school, you saw black teachers. What do you mean they don't have role models and all they see as criminals? Now wait a second, hold on. First of all, on the question of who gets the most food stamps, you just made the point I made to David Gregory on Meet the Press. David Gregory said to me, isn't that racist to talk about food stamps? And I said, David, a majority of the people getting food stamps are white. They're not black. So if I'm talking about food stamps, it's not an inherently racial comment. If you say you'll go to the police. You see P and tell them that they should get paychecks and not food stamps. You didn't say you would go to the NAACP and say, help you get whites off food stamps for paychecks? Well, first of all, I think from the standpoint of the NAACP, their number one legitimate priority is black teenage unemployment. Right. I think it's not suburban white kids who are reasonably well off who can't find a job this summer. But this became an ongoing theme throughout your campaign. Food stamp president, people get paychecks. I mean, you and I know the subtleties and the subliminal message there. Does a Republican candidate, even if they know better, are they forced to play to this extreme right ring that wants to see this kind of language? No. No, I'm not trying to make a point about the outcome of certain economic policies. But I also want to challenge you head on for a second about your second point. Are you seriously suggesting that there are not public housing projects that in fact have a very substantial number of people with no really healthy role models? And I agree with you. We went to a school and Philadelphia together. There was a great trip. And I wish every American could have been with us on that trip. They would have learned a great deal as I did and watching you have great courage in that community and the way you took people on was very impressive. But that was also a school that had changed dramatically in three years. I mean, I've never forgotten the one young man who said to us who was a junior in high school, that in the old school people expected him to fight so he did. In the new charter school, people who said if you fight will kick you out so he refused to fight because he didn't want to ever get kicked out. It was a great success. That's right. And you know who turned that school around, not criminals in their neighborhood. Those same black teachers, black principal, you met the same role models I'm talking about. I had no housing developments where people get up early, you don't put them to transit, risk life and limb in some high crime areas and they're the majority of the housing development trying to go out and work and make ends meet. And for them to be miscast in this way, I think is humiliating and is incorrect. But I wasn't miscasting people who get up early and work hard. I had relatives who didn't get out of high school. I had relatives, I had an aunt, one of my favorite aunt who helped raise me my Aunt Loma, who worked every day of her life into her 90s. She grew up very poor on a farm. She did maid work in her 70s and early 80s. She sowed and she felt that it was an inherent dignity and work. Now, so I think I have an identity. I have relatives who are steel workers in Stilton, Pennsylvania, who belong to the local union. I mean, I have blue collar workers who got out of high school but never went to college. So I'm just saying, we need to have a policy and I would think you'd actually agree with this. We need to have a policy that no neighborhood in America should be left out. No community should be left out. And it's clear today that we have policies and institutions that are not working. And frankly, I thought part of the reason you and I went around talking about charter schools was in an effort to get communities to realize that there is an opportunity for real change and they have to make that change. If in fact, their children are going to have the time to keep it. Absolutely. We went with Secretary Duncan of this administration. This president has put for bills around education and jobs that I think is consistent with that, which is why I do not understand how in any way shape or form, we can talk about relatively few, very few people in these places are employed. They have few role models. I think that the greatest role models are in the poorest communities where people have shown that no matter what their circumstances, their children should strive and struggle and pick themselves up and not make excuses. And that happens every day in some of those communities that you're talking about. And they should not be in any way confused with some of those that are irresponsible. All of us against that. But that's not the picture of those of us that are in those communities, working those communities, the labor for those communities. And I think that there's a base that you're playing to that has this misperception that clearly was being played to in these times. Look, I may not be saying it exactly right. And I'm not going to claim as a guy, as a college teacher, a white Republican, that I get all this in exactly the right language. But I'll tell you, when I look at the collapse of Detroit over the last 40 years, when I look at entire neighborhoods where half the houses have nobody living in them, when I look at places where the kids don't have good role models, and surely, and I'll be glad to go with you someday. We'll take a trip together. I'll find three or four neighborhoods if you'll go with me. That's what I'm just saying. I will take you to housing developments that will show you why we need not to be cut in the safety net because these people need us to deal with affordable housing. They work every day and try to make things work and they try and educate their children. We're going to run out of time. I need to ask you a question that occurred today. And we're going to continue this debate because I think we really need to straighten this out. Texas Republican Senator John Cunning today called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign. Do you support that position? Well, I think that the Attorney General either has to comply with the House contempt citation or he has to resign. I mean, it's clear that the House is going to vote contempt unless he turns over documents and answers questions. And I think this is, there's nothing to do with him as a person. This is a serious constitutional question. He says he wants to keep talking to the House. Well, I think in that context, I think that he ought to sit out with him in the next couple of days. I don't think this is a six month process. They ought to work it out. But I do think that what Senator Corner is pointing out is, in the absence of them finding a solution, once, if he has a contempt citation voted against him, his position will become impossible to sustain, just as a practical matter trying to be Attorney General. So I would hope if he's going to sit down, he does it in the next 48 or 72 hours and works something out because I think it's unhealthy for the country to have that level of tension between the Congress and the Attorney General. Well, speak again, Ridge. We're out of time. I appreciate your time, right? We're going to continue this discussion. All right. And these are the kind of debates we had traveling together. I also want you next time we talk, bring me one job. Well, just one that mid-round and produced. Please come back again to be continued. Stay with us.