Gingrich touts nationwide campaign

Newt Gingrich batted away the notion he had given up on the three states casting votes Tuesday, saying he was focused on running a nationwide campaign that included Minnesota and Colorado.

"I haven't given up on them," Gingrich said on CNN. "We were in Colorado yesterday and Minnesota last night. We had a huge crowd in Minnesota. Over 700 people showed up. We gave an energy speech at the College of Mines in Golden, Colorado and a town hall meeting and a rally."

Gingrich is not on the ballot in the third state voting Tuesday, Missouri. That state is holding a non-binding primary, which Gingrich labeled a "beauty contest."

The former House speaker said his campaign was looking beyond the three states holding contests Tuesday, pointing to contests in Ohio, Arizona, Tennessee and Michigan where he thought he could do well.

"Everybody has to figure out their own campaign strategy on a nationwide basis," Gingrich said. "I think the big story coming out tonight is that it's very hard for the elite media to portray Governor Romney as inevitable after tonight is over. You have seen a steady decline wherever he's dumping his negative ads."

Gingrich also offered his stance on the ongoing fighting in Syria. The GOP hopeful slammed President Barack Obama for not taking greater action to help stem the violence sooner, and offered a few ideas he would take as president.

"I would seek to have genuinely covert operations in which we worked with our allies in the region that had people who are fluent in Arabic, who were deeply engaged in helping them, and I would ensure that those folks had adequate weapons. Weapons in that part of the world aren't hard to get. That's pretty easy to obtain," Gingrich said.