Newt discusses how Mitch McConnell should plan a new COVID stimulus check bill and the Democratic party’s agenda should they win in Georgia.
Transcript:
Newt Gingrich
Varney & Co.
December 31, 2020
NEWT:
I have thought about this a lot. Mitch McConnell is a remarkably savvy political leader, and his book, The Long Game, gives you a sense of how he thinks about these things. My hunch is he actually thinks when this is over he will have put Schumer and the Democrats in an awkward position. If McConnell can put together the three components: the repeal of Section 230 – the Communications Act as it applies to the internet giants, a commission on fraud that the president has asked for, and the $2,000 checks. Then the challenge becomes if he can get the Republicans collectively to vote for that. Then the challenge becomes is Schumer really going to block it. Schumer will not particularly hate the commission and won’t particularly love the Section 230, although a lot of Democrats agree that the internet giants have to be somehow reformed, but does he then want his party to be the key votes voting no on a $2,000 check? I think that is McConnell’s strategy. I think it’s a fine strategy as long as the fallback, if necessary, is to pass a freestanding $2,000 bill. Both Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have come out in favor of passing the $2,000 check for everyone.
NEWT:
Except he’s still in control. He can try this out, if it works, it will be a huge coup for him to get all three through. If it doesn’t work, I think he has to come back at that point with a freestanding $2,000 bill. I hope in the back of his head he understands that he doesn’t want to ultimately have the Republican party be against something which 80% of the American people favor.
NEWT:
As you know, the Senate cannot either not move at all or move with amazing speed. I’m hoping they will get a vote in the very near future. Again, he’s in control and I’m just an observer, but I do think they need the vote and I think that Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue are both clearly in favor of the $2,000 payments, and it would be to their vantage to vote yes and they would like to, so hopefully they will get that vote. If he packages it right it may pass, and there may be several Democrats who say wait a second, I’m not going to vote no on a $2,000 check that 80% of my state wants. I don’t underestimate Mitch but my only fallback is if that doesn’t work I really hope before Tuesday that he will bring up a freestanding bill and get it through so it is clear that the Republicans are not the ones blocking it. I like your term bank shot. He’s a very shrewd leader that has been around a long time and thinks he can pull off this bank shot and I hope he can. I favor all three things. We’ll see what happens.
NEWT:
I think that we are on the edge of winning both seats. We had the largest ground game ever in the history of Georgia, more volunteers knocking on the more doors. I think they’re averaging over 100,000 doors a day being visited. Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue announced that they were over 8,000 precinct watchers already signed up so this won’t be like the general election. I think they really pushed back and blocked a lot of the things that Stacy Abrams and her machine or doing to get extra votes that might not have been legal. It’s a very simple model. You have to turn the vote out and have the vote counted accurately. I think they’re in pretty decent shape to do both, and I think on balance with Warnock being the most radical candidate ever nominated to the Senate and with Ossoff who gets more money out of California than Georgia, I think frankly Senators Loeffler and Perdue are in pretty decent shape. It’ll be a close race, but they should both be able to win ,and the president coming down and encouraging every conservative in the state to vote will be of substantial asset.
NEWT:
I don’t think anybody is divided about electing Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue. The governor and secretary of state are for them, and everyone wants them elected but what he ought to say and very direct way is simple: This is the future of America; if our two Republicans win we are dramatically strengthened in the Senate. If the two Democrats win they will try to pack the court, raise taxes, turn DC into a state with two Democratic senators, so you Georgians get to decide. Georgia will have the largest impact in a runoff of any state and American history. It’s truly a historic event. If every conservative votes I think we will be fine.
