Gingrich Links Slaying of Family to ‘Welfare State’

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) called the slaying of a pregnant woman and two of her children in Chicago and the abduction of the baby she was carrying a byproduct of “the welfare state” and the reluctance of political leaders to address moral issues.

Addressing a meeting of Republican governors Tuesday, Gingrich said the horrifying crime last week “happened in America because for two generations we haven’t had the guts to talk about right and wrong.”

Gingrich said the slayings of Debra Evans, 28, her 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son represent “the final culmination of a drug-addicted underclass with no sense of humanity, no sense of civilization and no sense of the rules of life in which human beings respect each other.”

“Let’s talk about what the welfare state has created,” Gingrich said, holding up a newspaper account of the slayings. “Let’s talk about the moral decay of the world the left is defending.”

Friends have said Evans attended church and was trying to get off welfare. Two men and a woman are accused of murdering Evans and her children because they wanted her baby. It has not been revealed whether the three are welfare recipients. They had no prior convictions for drugs.

“I am revolted that anyone would attempt to place blame on any segment of society for an act of such unspeakable brutality,” said Barbara Guttmann, executive director of the Illinois Democratic Party. “To try to win political points at a time like this is repulsive.”

Gingrich made similar remarks a year ago after Susan Smith drowned her two sons in South Carolina, saying that case was one reason Americans should vote for Republican candidates.