Newt Gingrich didn't need chump change lobbyist money

While campaigning in South Carolina on Tuesday, Newt Gingrich said he brought in so much cash money in the past by simply making speeches that he never needed to be a lobbyist.

"I did no lobbying of any kind – period," Gingrich said, according to the Huffington Post. "I'm going to be really direct, OK? I was charging $60,000 a speech. And the number of speeches was going up, not down. Normally, celebrities leave and they gradually sell fewer speeches every year. We were selling more."

Gingrich has come under a bit of fire recently for reports that he was paid at least $300,000 (some reports say as much as $1.6 million) by home mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Some have suggested Gingrich was working as a lobbyist. He says he was acting as a "historian."