Gingrich at Liberty: US at 'turning point'

Hours before the federal budget deadline, Newt Gingrich rallied Republicans at Liberty University to defend their principles and called for President Barack Obama to shield the nation’s troops from a government shutdown.

“Let’s be quite clear,” Gingrich said during Friday’s invite-only lunch at the Williams Stadium Club Pavilion. “President Obama is deliberately seeking to hold the men and women in uniforms and their family hostage so that politicians can fight over the budget and use the threat of not paying the troops as their weapons.”

Gingrich — the former Speaker of the House and a likely Republican presidential candidate — headlined a two-day conservative conference at Liberty University, marking his second visit to Liberty in six months. Also in attendance was Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the Tea Party caucus leader who is weighing a presidential bid.

Gingrich said the United States has entered its biggest turning point in 100 years. He urged Congress to add jobs to the economy and reduce the federal deficit.

“We’re either going to return to being an American country based on … the Constitution, the Federalist papers and the belief in American exceptionalism or we’re going to become a European, secular socialist society,” Gingrich said. “We’re either going to be citizens or subjects. There’s no middle ground.”

“The Awakening” conference was developed two years ago by Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty’s law school and founder of Liberty Counsel. Before Gingrich spoke, Staver emphasized that the conference was designed to promote shared values, not endorse candidates for elected office.

The conference was sponsored by Freedom Federation, a network of conservative organizations, ranging from the Traditional Values Coalition to the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

In all, more than 60 speakers tackled topics ranging from the budget deficit to abortion. 

Kicking off the conference was 22-year-old Lila Rose, a pro-life advocate who has orchestrated a string of undercover investigations against Planned Parenthood.

Rose made national headlines in February when her nonprofit organization, Live Action, released controversial footage of a Planned Parenthood employee giving advice to a man posing as a sex trafficker.

During Friday’s student convocation, Rose appealed to an audience of roughly 10,000 Liberty students to lead the fight to end abortion. She asked: “Is there a human rights issue greater?”

Rose described in detail an undercover trip to Planned Parenthood, when she posed as a 15-year-old girl who was seeking an abortion after having sex with a 23-year-old man – grounds for statutory rape. Rose explained how she picked out a Hannah Montana shirt to look young, and called the clinic “one of the most hopeless places in all of Los Angeles.” Rose said the Planned Parenthood employee advised her to lie about the age so the incident would not be reported.

“It’s a great weight for our generation to bear,” Rose said. “We’ve never known an America without abortion. We’ve been born into this culture of death that we’re living in.”

The conference continues today with breakout sessions on immigration, the economy, social justice and other issues. Bachmann is scheduled to appear during a closing session in Thomas Road Baptist Church from 6 to 9 p.m.