Gingrich and Trump: Let's have 'Apprentice' show for poor kids

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Republican front-runner Newt Gingrich is doubling down on his comments last week that “truly stupid” child labor laws should be relaxed so poor kids can replace their (unionized) school janitors. At a press conference with reality TV show host Donald Trump, Gingrich suggested Trump create a new Apprentice — for poor children in New York city.

theGrio: Newt Gingrich is Scrooge who’ll steal poor kids’ childhood

Gingrich was defending his statements that the children of the poor have no opportunity to learn work ethic, because the poor “have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’-unless it’s illegal.”

Newt’s solution is straight out of Trump’s playbook. Trump is best known for his reality TV show The Apprentice, and Gingrich thinks what works for B-list celebrities would also be right for low-income kids in New York.

Gingrich said:

“We need to work very hard to help poor children in poor neighborhoods acquire opportunities to work and I have asked him to take one of the poorer schools in new york and basically offer at least ten apprenticeships to kids from that school to get them into the world of work and get them into an opportunity to earn money and get them into the habit of showing up and realizing that effort gets rewarded and that America is all about the work ethic.”

WATCH: Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump propose poor kids’ ‘Apprentice’
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And Talking Points Memo reports Gingrich is getting some support on the right for his idea of putting poor kids to work in schools, and his opposition to what he called “silly” child labor laws:

Today, New Hampshire’s Union Leader, which endorsed Gingrich in November, joined other conservatives commentators who approve of Gingrich’s ‘put poor kids to work’ plan, defending it in their editorial pages: “Gingrich is only talking about putting common sense back into the child labor laws so minors can learn work habits that will serve them later in life. There’s nothing wrong with that.”