Remember when Newt Gingrich pretended to be “surprised” by the deluge of vicious, hateful right wing comments responding to his praise of Nelson Mandela?

Well, that was yesterday. Today he’s come up with a way to blame it all on liberals, specifically those dirty liberals at MSNBC, who (according to Gingrich) used Mandela’s death as an excuse to “attack” Ronald Reagan.

Former Speaker of the House and co-host of CNN’s Crossfire Newt Gingrich appeared on New Day Monday morning to discuss conservative backlash toward his praise of late civil rights icon Nelson Mandela, and changed his tune from the explanation he offered Candy Crowley over the weekend. While citing a misunderstanding of Mandela’s legacy, Gingrich also blamed “elements of the left, particularly on one news channel, who went overboard in trying to use this in a chance to attack Ronald Reagan.”

Of course, Ronald Reagan did oppose sanctions against the South African apartheid regime (in fact, he removed the sanctions put in place by the Carter administration), he did denounce Mandela, he did approve a billion dollar IMF loan to the Botha government, and he did sell them arms (that were used in Botha’s brutal crackdown on the black population).

Pointing out historical facts is not an “attack” or a “smear,” unless you’re Newt Gingrich and you need a way to walk back your criticisms of the deranged right wing base and blame it on the usual suspect: the “left wing media.”