At an Axios event, Newt Gingrich claimed the toxicity of the current political climate is “everyone’s fault,” pointing to social media and the “tribalization” of cable news — specifically CNN — as some of the main factors.
When asked why there was such a quick move on the right to call yesterday’s mail bombs a conspiracy, Gingrich answered, “Because it’s October.”
The Atlantic: “In the clamorous story of Donald Trump’s Washington, it would be easy to mistake Gingrich for a minor character. A loyal Trump ally in 2016, Gingrich forwent a high-powered post in the administration and has instead spent the years since the election cashing in on his access—churning out books (three Trump hagiographies, one spy thriller), working the speaking circuit (where he commands as much as $75,000 per talk for his insights on the president), and popping up on Fox News as a paid contributor. He spends much of his time in Rome, where his wife, Callista, serves as Trump’s ambassador to the Vatican.”
“But few figures in modern history have done more than Gingrich to lay the groundwork for Trump’s rise. During his two decades in Congress, he pioneered a style of partisan combat—replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories, and strategic obstructionism—that poisoned America’s political culture and plunged Washington into permanent dysfunction. Gingrich’s career can perhaps be best understood as a grand exercise in devolution—an effort to strip American politics of the civilizing traits it had developed over time and return it to its most primal essence.”
Newt Gingrich tore into the FBI after its raid of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, likening agents’ actions to those of the secret police during the Nazi regime, The Hill reports.
Said Gingrich: “This whole thing is an absurdity. We’ve now had Paul Manafort and his wife in their pajamas at 3 in the morning having the FBI break down the door. Cohen, the lawyer, had the door taken off of the hinges at 6 in the morning.”
He added: “It ain’t the rule of law when they kick in your door at 3 in the morning and you’re faced with armed men. And you have had no reason to be told you’re going to have that kind of treatment. That’s Stalin. That’s the Gestapo in Germany. That shouldn’t be the American FBI.”
“I quit worrying about his tweets — and I think some of the stuff he does is outrageous — but he has a larger vision of creativity. He intuits how he can polarize.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the Washington Post, saying he has “come to see the value” of President Trump’s use of Twitter.
“Donald Trump is really is draining the swamp, and the alligators are really unhappy.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by The Hill.
Newt Gingrich harshly criticized White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham, calling his recent actions “divisive” and “unhelpful.”
Said Gingrich: “I think that Scaramucci had better be a lot more careful than he has been. He obviously likes the limelight. He obviously likes being in the media. I would say right now that he’s being more pugnacious than effective. I think he ought to slow down a little bit and learn what he’s doing… If he’s gonna be that divisive, I’m not sure he’s gonna be very useful to the President.”
He added: “I think Scaramucci’s full of himself.”
Newt Gingrich said that a “president cannot obstruct justice,” The Hill reports.
Said Gingrich: “The president of the United States is the chief executive officer of the United States. If he wants to fire the FBI director, all he has to do is fire him.
Los Angeles Times: That’s not what he said in 1998.
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Newt Gingrich has a new book out: Understanding Trump.
“Bannon is a brilliant pirate who has had a huge impact. But White Houses, in the end, are like the U.S. Navy — corporate structures and very hard on pirates.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the Washington Post, on White House strategist Stephen Bannon.
“No one should be confused.Obamacare repeal if it passes will be Trump’s triumph. He personally intervened to save bill when it faced defeat.”
— Newt Gingrich, at 7:27 am.
“Why would you schedule a vote on a bill that is at 17 percent approval? Have we forgotten everything Reagan taught us?”
— Gingrich, at 2:36 pm.
“I would say to Sen. Schumer, if you look what happened to Jeb Bush or you look what happened to Hillary Clinton, you should be very worried if Donald Trump decides to focus on you because, so far, the track record is pretty good that he can define you a lot better than you can define him.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by Politico, warning Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) not to get into a public fight with Donald Trump.
Newt Gingrich told ABC News that his greatest worry is that President-elect Donald Trump and his team will “lose their nerve” once in office.
Said Gingrich: “Look, they’re going to arrive in Washington, and for them to be successful they have to stake out positions that DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile will not like and the left will hate. I’m worried that when they realize how big the problem is, that they decide that they’re just going to do the best they can and give in.”
He added: “You’re going to have the government employees going crazy about civil service reform. You’re going to have the teachers union going crazy over school choice. And these are pretty nonnegotiable. I mean, if you’re serious about school choice, there is no agreement with the teachers union.”
“The Constitution gives the president of the United States an extraordinarily wide grant of authority to use the power of the pardon. I’m not saying he should. I’m not saying he will. It also allows a president in a national security moment to say to somebody, go do X even if it’s technically against the law and here’s your pardon because I am ordering you as commander-in-chief to go do this.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview with NPR.
“In the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon. It’s a totally open power. He could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers. I pardon them if anyone finds them to have behaved against the rules. Period. Technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by Politico.
Newt Gingrich’s speaking agency sent out a notice Thursday afternoon informing potential customers that the former House Speaker’s fee would increase due to his “insight into President-elect Trump’s philosophies, principles and objectives,” according to Playbook.
“If you want to book the former House speaker for a D.C. speech, it will now cost you $25,000 plus ground transportation. For speeches east of Chicago, he’s charging $60,000 plus first class travel for two, and for speeches west of Chicago, he’s asking $75,000 plus first class travel for two. It’s an increase of about $15,000, our source tells us. No wonder he wanted to stay out of the administration!”
“These are things that don’t happen when parties are healthy and when movements are healthy. But the left is in the process right now of sort of spinning out of control and getting goofier and goofier.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by Politico, on Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-MN) bid to chair the Democratic National Committee.
Newt Gingrich, who backs Rudy Giuliani for secretary of state, told the Wall Street Journal that the search for the nation’s top diplomat is playing out a bit like Donald Trump’s longtime reality show, The Apprentice, as he publicly mulls the candidates’ skill sets and invites “audience participation.”
Said Gingrich: “It’s the only place so far that we have seen him trying to do an open apprenticeship, if you will.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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