Newt Gingrich on Fox and Friends | Fox News Channel | June 1, 2020

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]’This is a war against America,’ says Newt discussing how President Trump should handle violent riots breaking out in major U.S. cities[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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Transcripts

Fox and Friends
June 1, 2020

NEWT:

Well, I think he should. I think on the positive side, he should indicate that we support the right of peaceful protest and he should indicate that he is prepared to declare an emergency for the destruction. We should treat the destruction by these mobs as though it was a hurricane, or an earthquake and FEMA should step in. And we should help rebuild whether it’s Minneapolis or Atlanta or Washington or Los Angeles. People should not have to bear the brunt of government failing to protect them. I also think the President should outline what this is a war against America.

These are not riots in a traditional sense. You have a nationwide group, Antifa is part of it. But there are other elements involved. And the federal government should be engaged totally in terms of the FBI and other assets to find out who is paying for it. Who is organizing it? How is it happening? And, frank lock people up for a very long time. We should also go back and look at all the video we have because a lot of these people got caught on camera setting a police car on fire, defacing the Lincoln Memorial, setting fire to a church that dates back to 1816, you know, civilizations have to protect themselves. And I think we’re in a crisis in our country where we have got to decide is American civilization worth protecting in which case, we have to do whatever it takes to put down the people who would destroy our country.

NEWT:

Look there are laws and Andy McCarthy has written two really powerful columns about this as a former Justice Department lawyer who actually prosecuted terrorists. And he said, of course we can there is a law going all the way back to 1807 that the Federal Government has an obligation to protect you. When that man was beaten to death in Dallas, the United States government failed in its duty to protect him. And I think when you look around the country, when you see a police station burned down, when you at the kinds of things they are doing to the Lincoln Memorial and I frankly don’t understand why The Mall wasn’t protected last night. Whether you brings in the military or the D.C. national guard. But this nonsense of the mayor posturing and then losing total control of her city is something that we shouldn’t have to put up with. And I think Americans have to make a real decision here. I’m totally for the right of peaceful demonstration within a framework. When you establish a curfew and somebody breaks that curfew, they are no longer peacefully demonstrating. When somebody sets a police car on fire they are no longer peacefully demonstrating. We had good friends who told us in their neighborhood in Minneapolis their gas station was burned out. Their post office was burned out. This is a war against American civilization by some really vicious people.

NEWT:

What happens is there is a group of people and they have done this over and over again. There is a group of people, antifa is one of the most famous of the groups who want to destroy American civilization. And every excuse they get they go out and they start fires, they do damage, they try to cause violence. You know, when you see people who go down the street as they did in Atlanta and as they did in New York. And they break in every window and they loot material, you are just looking at the criminals and thieves who are using, a political moment to posture. What they are doing is they are stealing and destroying. I think we need to recognize that that’s why I wrote the article the other day I was appalled at the 2:00 A.M. Press conference in Minnesota which happened to 9:00 the next morning here in Rome once we happened to see it. And basically, they were staying that they hadn’t mobilized enough forces and so forth. And my reaction at the time was there are 13,000 members of Minnesota National Guard. If you have to, you mobilize all of them. I would have said the same thing for Washington yesterday. There is no reason to allow any person who wants to commit violence to be anywhere within a mile of the White House or a mile The Mall. Just close them down and say no. We’re not going to allow these kind of people to have — to go out here and cause damage.

NEWT:

Well, yes, and there are also people who trashed Seattle years ago. They made a habit of this. One of the things I hope that the president’s designation as a terrorist group will do is let’s open up the funding. Who is paying for these people? I was appalled that 13 of Joe Biden’s staff were donating money to bail people out in Minneapolis. Frankly, I was also appalled that they were being bailed out. They should stay in jail until this is over.