Newt Gingrich Tells Us About the Justice System and Experts

Wolf Blitzer interviewed Newt Gingrich this afternoon, who is still technically running for President, and given that the second degree murder charge for George Zimmerman in relation to the killing of Trayvon Martin was coming within the next hour, the CNN host decided to lead off with a general  "tell me anything" question about the case, to which a visibly uncomfortable Gingrich gave a reserved canned response about having "faith in the criminal justice system."

Asked about the President's public comments on the Martin case, Gingrich offered that Americans of all ethnicities and ages are killed all the time, and that each deserves sympathy and concern. Pressed to say something about the President and the Attorney General commenting publicly on the case, Gingrich finally offered this:

You would hope that the Attorney General of the United States would be in favor of the system of justice, and you would hope that the President who is a Harvard Law graduate would be in favor of the system of justice.

He followed this up with an appeal to experts:

 Apparently this prosecutor is a very serious person. She has a considerable track record… I'm inclined to rely on her judgment unless there's some overwhelming reason by some other expert to second guess her, and since I'm not an expert I'm not going to second guess her.

We know, of course, Gingrich backed the killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki through a targeted drone strike in Yemen last year. The radical cleric al-Awlaki was put on a "kill list" and approved by a panel of experts, raising the question of whether President Obama or Newt Gingrich know the difference between the rule of law (justice systems) and the rule of men (experts).