On the December 5 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity asked Fox News contributor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) to “explain” his comments on the December 2 edition of C-SPAN's In Depth during which Gingrich referred to former President Bill Clinton as “fundamentally dishonest on a routine, regular basis.” Gingrich replied: "[W]hat is there to explain?" adding: "[H]ow could any serious person look at his [Clinton's] routine pattern of changing the facts to fit the current conversation and not recognize that this is a person of limited connection to factual accuracy?" Later, in response to Hannity's question, "[D]oes [Sen.] Hillary [Rodham Clinton (D-NY)] -- do you think she has the same characteristics?" Gingrich stated: “No, I think she's very different from Bill Clinton. But if you've read the most recent [Fox News contributor and nationally syndicated columnist] Dick Morris column, it's just devastating on taking apart President Clinton's most recent 5-minute ad in favor of his wife, in which he goes through and he takes each assertion and he tells you from his personal experience as their consultant in the '80s what his understanding of the facts were. And it's almost -- it ranges from a very funny column to a very sad column as you read it.” However, the column to which Gingrich was apparently referring contained several falsehoods and claims contradicted by other sources.

Although Gingrich stated that he was referring to Morris' “most recent column,” according to Morris' website, dickmorris.com, Morris' December 5 column did not discuss any statements by Bill Clinton; rather, it evaluated the chances that Sen. Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) could win their respective parties' nominations for president if they did not “win anything before the Florida primary on Jan. 29.” Instead, Gingrich was apparently referring to Morris' August 9 FrontPageMag.com online column in which Morris purported to offer “corrections” to Clinton's “syrupy five minute ad” for his wife's presidential campaign, a video appearing on hillaryclinton.com. However, as Media Matters for America documented, in his 951-word column, Morris made no fewer than seven different claims about the video or about Sen. Clinton that contained outright falsehoods or are contradicted by other sources. Further, Morris mischaracterized several quotes from Bill Clinton himself while purporting to offer a “correction[]” of Clinton's video.

For instance, in his column, Morris wrote:

Bill says: Hillary never wanted to run for public office, but she did want to work at public service.

The true facts are: When Clinton was considering not running for another term as Governor of Arkansas in 1990, Hillary said she would run if he didn't. She and Bill even had me take two surveys to assess her chances of winning. The conclusion was that she couldn't win because people would just see her as a seat warmer for when Bill came back licking his wounds after losing for president. So she didn't run. Bill did and won. But there is no question she had her eye on public office, as opposed to service, long ago.

Media Matters noted that in fact, what Bill Clinton actually said in the video on her website is "[w]hen we met, over 35 years ago in law school, I was interested in public office, but she wasn't. She thought she'd never run for anything. She was just interested in public service." Bill Clinton did not claim that “Hillary never wanted to run for public office,” as Morris stated he did. He merely said that in law school, he had ambitions to hold “public office,” but she did not. Bill Clinton made no mention of whether his wife considered running for “Governor of Arkansas in 1990.”

From the December 5 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, welcome back to the program. Now, I know you didn't get into the presidential race here, but you are in it. And you made some comments because Bill Clinton and one of his advisers went out there speaking about comments you had made about impeachment. And you said about Bill Clinton on C-SPAN: “He is fundamentally dishonest on a routine, regular basis. It's just his personality. He tells you the version that he needs to, to get through the week. And he just did it in Iowa over whether he used to be against the war.” Explain?

GINGRICH: Yes. What -- what is there to explain?

HANNITY: Well --

GINGRICH: I mean, I don't see -- how could any serious person look at -- and President Clinton's one of the most charming people in politics -- but how could any serious person look at his routine pattern of changing the facts to fit the current conversation and not recognize that this is a person of limited connection to factual accuracy? That's not an attack on him -- it's just a fact.

HANNITY: I agree with you. But let's think about -- that's a profound thing to say about somebody, that they are fatally flawed in their character. Now, is -- does Hillary -- do you think she has the same characteristics?

GINGRICH: No, I think she's very different from Bill Clinton. But if you've read the most recent Dick Morris column, it's just devastating on taking apart President Clinton's most recent 5-minute ad in favor of his wife, in which he goes through and he takes each assertion and he tells you from his personal experience as their consultant in the '80s what his understanding of the facts were. And it's almost -- it ranges from a very funny column to a very sad column as you read it.

And my point was, and you know, what happened on C-SPAN -- we were doing the BookNotes program about various books I've written, and they showed a clip from the president speaking at his library in Little Rock last Friday night. And he made a series of allegations that were untrue. But they made perfect sense in terms of what he wants to believe. And my only point was -- and I wasn't trying to attack him -- I just said, “Well, that looked like to me like it was just a perfectly Bill Clinton moment.”

HANNITY: Well, look, I saw the interview, and you said it in a very measured tone, it was obviously -- it wasn't personal, but it's just, you know, for you it's a matter of fact here.