Gingrich defends Bachmann and McCarthyism: 'There were real spies'

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was not wrong to accuse a top State Department aide of being an Islamic infiltrator, according to Newt Gingrich, because "behind McCarthyism there were real spies."

"People tend to forget this," Gingrich told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "There were a lot of guilty people who would never have been uncovered if some people didn't have the courage to take them on. There's a brand new book coming out on Reagan and Hollywood in the late '40s, and it is appalling the number of hard core communists that were working in the movie industry. There has been an enormous effort to rewrite history."

Bachmann and four other Republican lawmakers sent letters to five inspectors general last month calling on them to investigate activities that appeared to be the result of influence by the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group. They said top State Department aide Huma Abedin should be investigated because she “has three family members — her late father, her mother, and her brother — connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.”

Their allegations rely heavily on “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within,” a ten-part video course produced by the Center for Security Policy. The organization was founded by anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney, who has also accused the Conservative Political Action Conference of being infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood through anti-tax activist Grover Norquist.

"This is a question, why have we had a series of decisions, and Andy McCarthy, who was a prosecutor in the first World Trade Center terrorism trials and has worked on this issue for 20 years lays out case after case after case where this State Department has been amazingly pro-Muslim Brotherhood," Gingrich said. "Now, whose advice is that? I don't know him. I can't tell you. I'm not accusing anybody of anything. I am saying American citizens have a right to have their members of Congress ask the question."

Blitzer said it was "ridiculous" to accuse "a wonderful American patriot" of being a spy because of "some distant relative or whatever."

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below: