Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
Fox News is suspending its contributor agreement with Newt Gingrich, Politico reports.
The statement: “Fox News Channel has mutually agreed to suspend its contributor agreement with Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich effective immediately. Due to the intense media speculation about Gingrich’s potential selection as Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate, we felt it best to halt his contributor role on the network to avoid all conflicts of interest that may arise.”
Donald Trump is considering picking Newt Gingrich for a top national security post should he be elected president, Bloomberg reports.
“A national-security role in a potential Trump administration could be a good fit for Gingrich. He holds a doctorate in European history and is known for his intellectual curiosity. In Congress, he immersed himself in military affairs and intelligence issues, and in 2001 he was named by then-President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. Like Trump, Gingrich is a staunch critic of the the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran.”
Trunp’s vice presidential short list is reportedly down to Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Mike Pence.
“It took me a long time, and a number of people talking to me through the years to get a sense of this. If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, on this week’s shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
Newt Gingrich confirmed that he is being vetted to serve as Donald Trump’s running mate in the upcoming presidential election, Politico reports.
Said Gingrich: “If Trump offers the position and is serious about it, which I think he would be after our conversations, Callista and I would feel compelled to serve the country.”
Newt Gingrich called Donald Trump a great populist leader and said he “is one part Andrew Jackson as a disruptor, one part Theodore Roosevelt with manic energy, and one part P.T. Barnum as a salesman, which resonates well with the working class, but not the elite,” the Aspen Daily News reports.
Said Gingrich: “That blend of those three explains the sort of ‘Trumpian’ phenomenon. That frankly is fairly offensive if you’re part of an establishment that goes to think tanks and comes to Aspen, and has conversations appropriate for corporate boardrooms. Guys who talk at fourth-grade levels and speak in the language of a good working-class bar, drive you crazy. And if they succeed they really drive you crazy, because they disrupt everything you thought you invested your life in.”
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich, under consideration as Donald Trump’s running mate, is dropping his decades-long support of free trade deals and picking up Trump’s strongly protectionist position, Politico reports.
Said Gingrich: “I basically agree with Trump’s speech on trade.”
“That represents a significant shift for Gingrich, who championed trade agreements while a congressional leader, and a move that would smooth over one of the biggest policy differences between the two men who could form the Republican ticket.”
“Donald Trump’s campaign has begun formally vetting possible running mates, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich emerging as the leading candidate followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie,” the Washington Post reports.
“Given Trump’s unpredictability, campaign associates caution that the presumptive Republican nominee could still shake up his shortlist. But with little more than two weeks before the start of the Republican National Convention, Gingrich and Christie have been asked to submit documents and are being cast as favorites for the post inside the campaign.”
Newt Gingrich told Fox News that he is not being vetted as a potential vice presidential pick for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Said Gingrich: “Nobody has called me. Nobody has said would you like to be. Nobody has said, ‘Would you be willing to be considered?'”
“More than a third of likely voters backing Democrat Hillary Clinton in the latest Bloomberg Politics national poll say she should pick Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a darling of the party’s liberal wing, as her running mate.”
“On the Republican side, almost a third of likely voters supporting Donald Trump say former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be his best pick.”
“Let me go a step further, because remember, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, and Orlando involve American citizens. We’re going to ultimately declare a war on Islamic supremacists and we’re going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship. And we’re going take much tougher positions. In the late 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt was faced with Nazi penetration in the United States. We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here.”
— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News.
“This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made. I think it’s inexcusable.”
— Newt Gingrich, quoted by The Hill, after Donald Trump attacked a California judge for his Mexican heritage.
Newt Gingrich lambasted Mitt Romney for his failed drive to derail Donald Trump, calling his actions “pathetic” and his effort “not particularly effective,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Gingrich: “It’s pathetic… I don’t know what happened to Mitt, but it is weird; it is bizarre. Having a guy like that go berserk in public makes you wonder what his problems are.”
Newt Gingrich “has, in effect, launched his own campaign” to become Donald Trump’s running mate, National Review reports.
Said Trump super PAC operative Ed Rollins: “I think Newt is lobbying to be the vice president, and I think their people are paying a lot of attention to him.”
He added: “It’d be a ticket with six former wives, kind of like a Henry VIII thing. They certainly understand women.”
“Newt Gingrich did not rule out on Wednesday the possibility that he could be persuaded to serve as presumptive nominee Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, but said Trump has plenty of other talent to consider,” Reuters reports.
Said Gingrich: “I would certainly talk about it. I wouldn’t turn it down automatically.”
Top Trump aide Paul Manafort told Politico that Trump’s vice presidential shortlist is “in his mind.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told 9NEWS he’s been talking to Donald Trump and the Trump campaign, but not about being Trump’s running mate.
Said Gingrich: “I think Trump has the biggest upside and the biggest downside of any candidate I’ve ever seen. If everything works right, he will be an amazing historic figure. If everything works wrong, he’ll be worse than Goldwater. And I don’t think we have any idea right now which version is going to show up.”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution quotes Newt Gingrich:
“I have no idea what his thinking is right now. I don’t have any interest in the sense that I’m going to go out and try to become his vice president. I would obviously have to listen carefully if he called. He’s an old friend, and I think any time a potential president calls a citizen, a citizen owes them an obligation.”
“He always counterattacks ferociously. He also finds a way to define his opponent in a way that shrinks and limits them. These aren’t just barroom brawl tactics. They are to define semantically his opponents in ways they can’t get out of, Hillary being the next great experiment.”
— Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, quoted by the Washington Post, on Donald Trump.
Newt Gingrich “marveled at one of Donald Trump’s biggest accomplishments in the 2016 race — making Ted Cruz appear normal,” Politico reports.
Said Gingrich: “The challenge is entirely on Trump. He is not gonna get any help out of the establishment. They have reluctantly concluded that if, you know — Trump in a funny way has normalized Ted Cruz because without Trump, the establishment would be totally opposed to Cruz.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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