Gingrich repeated falsehood that Rangel promised to raise taxes if Dems take control of House

On the October 10 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Fox News political analyst and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) falsely claimed that Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) "promise[d] to raise taxes" if the Democrats take over the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections. After co-host Sean Hannity asked Gingrich what advice he would "give the Republicans in the 28 days between now and Election Day," Gingrich responded that Republicans "need to take Charlie Rangel's promise to raise taxes and consider every single tax cut for a possible tax increase and say to the country, 'Do you really want your taxes to go up that much? Do you think that's the kind of House you want?' "

In fact, as Media Matters for America noted, during a September 26 interview with host Neil Cavuto on Fox News' Your World, Rangel, who is in line to become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee if Democrats gain a majority in the House after the November election, stated that a House controlled by the Democrats "would not raise taxes" and "would not roll back" President Bush's tax cuts enacted by Congress and set to expire in 2010. Rangel added: "The president has -- had allowed these things to expire in 2010 ... and I would not advocate or support a retroactive increase in taxes."

Media Matters noted that, on the October 6 edition of Your World, Cavuto similarly did not challenge Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman's false claim that Rangel had said that "you would get across-the-board tax increases" if "the Democrats were in control."

From the October 10 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: Here is my question for you, 'cause you're the architect of the Republican victory in '94. They say your revolution is about to come to an end. What advice do you give the Republicans in the 28 days between now and Election Day?

GINGRICH: They need to go back to the basics. They need to emphasize how big the contrast is. They need to take Charlie Rangel's promise to raise taxes and consider every single tax cut for a possible tax increase and say to the country, "Do you really want your taxes to go up that much? Do you think that's the kind of House you want?"

—K.D.