Mitt Romney came out swinging in Monday night’s GOP debate, after launching a full-out attack on Newt Gingrich in Florida.

Romney took his first shot at Gingrich within the first five minutes of the debate hosted by NBC News. Gingrich has taken the lead from Romney in the GOP race in the last week, winning South Carolina.

“This is going to come down to a question of leadership,” Romney said, slamming Gingrich over his record. “The Speaker was given a opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994, and at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace.”
Romney’s campaign also released a web video shortly before the debate began titled “Mr. Washington Insider” that plays up Gingrich’s “long record as a Washington insider.”

Gingrich came back swinging, as well. The two front-runners exclusively held the stage for a prolonged exchange early in the debate.

“I’m not going to spend the evening trying to chase Mitt Romney’s misinformation,” Gingrich responded, slamming Romney for making false claims and calling him a “terrible historian.” He called it the “worst kind of trivial politics.”

Romney went on to defend himself for going negative on Gingrich. He said he is seeking to tell people “things they need to know” after being “overwhelmed by all the attacks” in South Carolina last week, where Gingrich went on to take the primary.

Romney also doubled-down on Gingrich’s past consulting work for the mortgage giant Freddie Mac, accusing him of “influence peddling.”

Gingrich released one year of his contract with Freddie Mac shortly before the GOP debate began.

“If you read the contract…it says very clearly, we did consulting. Which the governor did for many years. I’ve never accused him of lobbying,” Gingrich said.

“There’s a point in this process where it gets very personal and nasty and that’s sad,” he continued.

Romney did not let Gingrich leave it at that.

“They don’t pay people $25,000 a month as historians,” Romney shot back. “This contract proves you were consulting.”

Gingrich interrupted Romney to scoff later in their exchange.

“You’ve been walking around this state saying things that are not true,” Gingrich said. “The fact is I offered strategic advice based on my knowledge of history.”

(Source: The Hill)