The Hill News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Monday his campaign's in a "rebuilding" stage following his strong performance in Thursday night's GOP presidential debate.

Gingrich claimed an influx in donations that's helped his campaign after his combative performance during the debate in Iowa, where he lashed out at "gotcha" questions about the status of his campaign after it suffered a wave of mass resignations in June.

"I took about two months of the elite media explaining I was dead. And, I'm still here," Gingrich said on Fox News. "The polls have started back up.  We got many new donors coming out of Thursday night who went to Newt.org and gave money voluntarily.  And, frankly, that's all been very helpful in rebuilding the campaign."

Gingrich's campaign had faced difficulties out of the gate, especially after he openly ridiculed Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) 2012 budget as "right-wing social engineering." The former Speaker walked b! ack the remark, but not until he had taken a beating from Republican leaders, who accused him of disloyalty.

The former Speaker ranks as the choice of just three percent of Republicans, according to the latest Gallup poll, and won only 283 votes â€" about 2.3 percent â€" in this past weekend's straw poll in Ames, Iowa, in which he did not actively compete.

Nonetheless, Gingrich trumpeted what he said was somewhat of a comeback in an interview on "The O'Reilly Factor," downplaying his campaign's additional money woes after a lackluster second quarter fundraising performance.

"McCain was consistently outspent by Romney and Giuliani. It didn't seem to matter," Gingrich said. "Reagan, at times, was outspent. It didn't seem to matter. I mean ideas do matter in the end. And I think we're going to offer better solutions."