Chris Matthews and Newt Gingrich squared off on Hardball at the Republican National Convention on August 27, 2012.
Matthews asked Gingrich about then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney's "birther" comment at a Michigan campaign event. After mentioning that he and his wife Ann were born in Michigan, Romney joked, "No one's ever asked to see our birth certificates."
Gingrich, who called Matthews by his last name, said that Romney's reference was “part of the common culture."
"Mitt was making, by any reasonable standard, he was making what is called a joke," Gingrich quipped.
“First one he’s ever told in his life,” Matthews fired back.
Matthews also asked Gingrich why he's referred to President Obama as the "Food Stamp President."
"A Food Stamp President is a guy whose policies are so destructive...that he puts more people on food stamps, most of them white," Gingrich said. "Why do you assume food stamp refers to black [people]?...You're being a racist!" Gingrich said Matthews.
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