Metro

SI power broker Molinari says: Not Newt, not ever!

Guy Molinari, the Republican power broker and former Staten Island Beep, ripped Newt Gingrich as unfit to be president yesterday — a day before the front-running GOP candidate was set to attend a Tea Party rally in the borough.

At least 600 people are expected to pack the Staten Island Hilton Garden Inn today to hear Gingrich speak at a 2 p.m. town-hall meeting.

But Molinari, who served with Gingrich in Congress and supports Mitt Romney, rained on the former House speaker’s parade.

“God help us if Newt Gingrich is elected president. I won’t vote for him. I love my country too much,” Molinari said.

Molinari, head of New Yorkers for Romney, said he had found Gingrich to be untrustworthy.

He said that Gingrich, as House GOP leader, broke his word and bumped him from a committee assignment.

“It happened to so many others. How do you trust a guy like that? What kind of trust would he get from other parts of the world?” Molinari said.

Gingrich brushed off the remarks.

“We focus on solutions, not critics,” said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond.

Meanwhile, Romney yesterday slammed Gingrich as an Washington insider who acts like a lobbyist.

“He’s been in politics almost all his life, and the last decade or so, he’s been working in government affairs in Washington,” he said on “Fox & Friends.”

“If America feels that we need somebody who’s lived in Washington the last 40 years to run the country, he’s a good choice,” the former Massachusetts governor added.