Gingrich hits Romney as favorite of bailed-out bankers, George Soros

Trailing in Florida, GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich continued to hammer away at Mitt Romney, broadening his attacks to paint his rival as a favorite of Wall Street special interests and liberal financier George Soros.

“George Soros in Europe yesterday said publicly in a Reuters interview that’s on video that he’s perfectly happy with either Obama or Romney, that they are the same people,” Gingrich said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" of the billionaire investor who has long backed liberal causes.

Gingrich was referring to an interview Soros taped with Reuters in which he said "If it’s between Obama and Romney, there isn’t all that much difference except for the crowd that they bring with them," suggesting that on economic policy he saw the two candidates as similar.

Gingrich has sought to position himself as the outsider in the GOP primary, depicting Romney as the chosen candidate of the Republican establishment. But Gingrich has steadily broadened his attacks to now paint his rival as captive to Wall Street as well. He said Monday that Romney’s ties to Wall Street would make it difficult for him to draw distinctions with President Obama in a general election.

Gingrich pointed to campaign contributions Romney has received from employees of Goldman Sachs. "Goldman Sachs: largest fundraiser of Obama in 2008, largest funder of Romney in 2012," said Gingrich.

“He can bury me for a very short amount of time with four or five or six times as much money, most of it raised on Wall Street, coming from the guys who got bailouts from the government," he said. "In the long run, the Republican party is not going to nominate the founder of RomneyCare, a liberal Republican who’s pro-abortion, pro-gun control and pro-taxes. It ain’t gonna happen.”

On "CBS This Morning" Monday, Gingrich described Romney as backed by those who wanted the country dominated "by the New York and Washington establishment."

Gingrich, who is trailing by double digits in multiple polls released on Sunday, dismissed suggestions that Florida is a lost fight.

"The latest InsiderAdvantage poll showed me having closed the gap withing 5 points," he said on ABC.

Polls showed the former House Speaker leading briefly in Florida after a late surge propelled him to victory in South Carolina, but a barrage of attack ads from the Romney campaign and pro-Romney super-PACs, as well as a lackluster debate performance, have seen him lose momentum. The Romney camp has gone on the offensive using high-profile surrogates to criticize Gingrich's record and leadership, leading former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to denounce the attacks as "Stalin-esque."

Gingrich said that Palin was right to characterize the attacks as unduly harsh. "I think she is correct to say that all of the elements of the old establishment are in a moment of hysteria."

Gingrich has claimed that Romney has run ads with attacks he knows to be false. On Monday, he suggested that Romney had also misled voters on his tax returns he released last week.

"He misled the entire country on his own voting pattern," said Gingrich of Romney. "He misled the country on a whole lot of things ... he had 23 foreign assets he didn't list on his disclosure forms."

Gingrich though said that he would back the eventual Republican nominee, saying that any GOP candidate would be preferable to Obama.

"Re-electing Obama is a disaster," he said. 

"I will certainly endorse the Republican nominee but Mitt Romney will have a very difficult time differentiating himself, and that's what George Soros's message is this morning," Gingrich continued.

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