This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 27, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is confident. Says he can and probably will win Florida. And that's where we are, in Florida. And today we jumped on Speaker Gingrich's bus and hit the campaign trail with him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN SUSTEREN: Mr. Speaker, I like your new bus.

NEWT GINGRICH, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's fun. It's a very exciting part of the campaign.

VAN SUSTEREN: In fact, we just joined the bus. You were coming out of a fund-raiser?

GINGRICH: Yes. And we were -- met with a whole bunch of folks who are very excited about the campaign and helped pay for the ads. So it was great.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, last night, I should tell you that we all thought you were going to come out swinging, and you seemed a little more sober to -- your responses to some of the things that Governor Romney said about your record.

GINGRICH: Well, actually, Mitt was so systematically dishonest...

VAN SUSTEREN: Is that lying?

GINGRICH: Well, I'll let you decide. But he -- the easiest example is he said that he only voted for Tsongas in the Democratic primary because there was no Republican primary. And during the debate, Larry Sabato tweeted that that was baloney, that, in fact, George H. W. Bush and Pat Buchanan were on the very same day.

VAN SUSTEREN: Could he have just a faulty memory?

GINGRICH: Well, he's said enough different things that it strikes me as implausible. I think -- I think that the governor says what he needs to say to get through this minute without remembering that there's a tomorrow.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, the audience seemed to be not the same type of audience you had in South Carolina. The audience didn't seem to be with you so much last night.

GINGRICH: Oh, I think -- I think that that was probably his base. I mean, he's had -- his state office is in Jacksonville. I think they probably did a pretty good job making sure their people were at the event.

But that was fine. I mean, I don't mind -- what -- what stopped me was he would say things -- I'd find myself standing there, going, That can't be true. And he said it again and again. And in fact, by the time the debate was over, there were various fact checkers -- you saw one of them live, Wolf Blitzer said to him, That is your ad, your voice is on it.

At another point, he talked about his investments being in a blind trust. And literally, by the time the debate was over, there was a fact checker who said it's just not true. And so every time you'd turn around, there was a new falsehood from Romney.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, do you think those falsehoods that you allege -- I'll assume that they're true -- are those resonating here in Florida? I mean, is it going to have an impact on the vote?

GINGRICH: I think it has an impact because the presidency is so important and the ability of a president to lead the American people by telling the truth is so important that if you begin to get a sense that this is a person who will say anything, do anything, make up anything, you really undermine your credibility as a potential president.

VAN SUSTEREN: But is it enough for to you say in a debate -- and I know that have you some ads, as well -- is the media with you, do you think, or against you on this?

GINGRICH: I think on this one, oddly enough, the media's with me. And the reason is I think the media is kind of amazed at the level of dishonesty. I mean, I've done three or four interviews today where people have gone, How could he think he can get away with this? I mean, it'll be interesting to watch them when they go talk to Romney because some of these are so factually clearly false that it's very hard for him to claim anything except he just wasn't telling the truth.

VAN SUSTEREN: What's he like to you before the debate, during breaks, and after the debate?

GINGRICH: We're collegial. I mean, it's -- you've been a lawyer. It's a little bit like lawyers in the middle of a trial.

VAN SUSTEREN: Oh, no, I never -- I mean, if I was mad at somebody, I was not collegial.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: I was not collegial! Believe me, if I thought someone was doing me wrong, I was not collegial. I would be in that person's face.

GINGRICH: No, I think -- I think you -- and this is part of why I debate the way I do. I think you have to, as a potential president, maintain a standard of dignity, or people think you're not capable of being president.

People want a sense of stability because the level of power we give presidents is so great that you want a sense of, This is a person -- it's a little bit like hiring a school bus driver. You don't want to hire a person who might take the bus off a cliff. You want to hire a person who's going to be safe with your children. Well, the president, in that sense, has 305 million people to be safe with.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you raise that sort of -- the safe issue, or I guess let me take it a little bit further. One of the allegations against you is that you're, quote, "erratic." And I know that Bob Dole has made that allegation. Why do you think he would say that?

GINGRICH: Oh, look, I think the Washington establishment is hyper. There's a new Wall Street Journal poll out that says I would beat Romney 52-39 nationally if it was a two-person race. I think the prospect of Gingrich actually becoming president for the old guard is horrifying. I mean, they're all comfortable. They're all set in their ways. They're all part of an establishment. I come along. I'm a genuine populist. I know enough about Washington to change it, and I'm distanced enough from Washington to change it. And I think they find that a nightmare.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you anti-establishment?

GINGRICH: Yes. Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes?

GINGRICH: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: Tom DeLay...

GINGRICH: This, by the way, is a pretty sick establishment. It could use some changing.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. We'll talk about that. Tom DeLay, who was the whip when you were speaker of the House, he's come out against you, as well.

GINGRICH: Tom DeLay tried to engineer a coup against me when I was speaker. Tom DeLay engaged in behaviors which ultimately led him into court. We are very different people. I don't agree with his style. I don't agree with his approach. And I don't agree with his tactics.

VAN SUSTEREN: Is there some...