Gingrich blasts Bachmann as 'factually challenged'

Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich blasted Michele Bachmann as "factually challenged" on Wednesday after the Minnesota congresswoman said his position on illegal immigration was the equivalent of amnesty.

"Some people are just factually challenged," Gingrich said, according to the Washington Examiner. "It's unfortunate. When I was a teacher I occasionally had a student who couldn't figure out where things were or what things were or what the right date was. When that happens, you feel sorry that they are so factually challenged."

Bachmann has repeatedly criticized Gingrich for suggesting in the Republican foreign policy debate last week in Washington that law-abiding, tax-paying illegal immigrants who had been in the country for a number of years should be afforded a pathway to legal status. Last Saturday, Bachmann also produced an editorial from eight years ago in which Gingrich endorsed "paths to permanent residence to enable more workers to stay, assimilate and become part of America."

"He was on board with that amnesty policy, which many Americans opposed," Bachmann said Saturday, according to Fox News. "This isn't for people who've been here for 25 years. This is a path of amnesty for people who are here in the United States. ... If he's only talking about people who have been here for 25 years, that would be completely different than the letter that he published in The Wall Street Journal."

Gingrich has repeatedly rejected Bachmann's characterization of his position, telling Fox News last Thursday that suggestions his proposal would provide blanket amnesty were "explicitly false."

Gingrich returned to the criticism Wednesday.

"What I will say," Gingrich said, "is that the voters will be pretty good over time in distinguishing between people who know facts and people who don't know facts … people who are focused on positive, large solutions, not people who are trying to pick fights."

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