Gingrich ‘didn’t personally’ get $1.6 million from Freddie

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich admits he should have done a better job explaining the consulting work he did for Freddie Mac.

Bloomberg News has reported Gingrich earned between $1.6 million and $1.8 million from the mortgage giant. His critics have said he was lobbying, but Gingrich has maintained he only offered “strategic advice” as a historian.

“The facts are I didn’t personally get that kind of money,” Gingrich said, explaining the fees went to a consulting firm. “The share I got was relatively small. We did consulting advice.”

He defended his Freddie Mac work, saying he has tried over his career to apply “conservative principles” to help poor people obtain the financing to get their own homes. Gingrich also said he favors “breaking up” both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, both quasi-governmental agencies that taxpayers had to bail out amid the subprime mortgage loan crisis.