Newt give his thoughts on the Georgia Senate Runoff results and what Democratic control will mean for the future of the United States.
Transcript:
Newt Gingrich
Mornings with Maria
January 6, 2020
NEWT:
I think based on what we know so far, Republicans did not turn out in the numbers they needed to. The Republican campaigns didn’t reach into the Latino community as effectively as President Trump had, if they had, then that alone might have made the margin of difference, and Stacey Abrams and the Democrats have done an amazing job turning out votes. You can argue whether 100% were totally — I thought it suspicious that late in the evening DeKalb county found another 50,000 ballots they missed somehow. I think nonetheless, in the big the Democratic counties, by the way, they wait to report until after all the Republican counties are in, so you end up with pretty clear understanding on the Democrat side of what it takes to win. I think it is a disaster, I am writing my newsletter on Gingrich 360 today about the Georgia GOP disaster. Everybody who said this is the most consequential runoff in history was right, and that means that Schumer is going to be majority leader. I think frankly the precincts that are still coming in that Ossoff is certainly going to be the victor, and you’re going to end up in a situation where Democrats have a real shot at radically changing America over the next two years.
NEWT:
A couple things: one, goes all the way back to when Governor Kemp decided that he would reject President Trump’s suggestion about Doug Collins, a conservative Congressman as Senator, he picked Kelly Loeffler and created a level of bad blood. So, you had a civil war underway between the governor and president. You have in Raffensperger, a secretary of state closer to Stacey Abrams, the Democratic organizer, he’s much closer to her than any Republican I know you of. You end up with a situation where the president didn’t coordinate with anybody when he proposed $2,000 a person, then McConnell decided not to bring it up in the Senate. You end up with Loeffler and Perdue out there with Republicans not delivering on what the president promised that I think also hurt. Finally, you have this bizarre phone call between the president and Secretary of State in Georgia, at a time when President Trump had to know that Raffensperger was his mortal enemy, yet he gets involved in this hourlong call just before the election, further muddying waters. I think between the consultants who ran a terrible campaign, the failure to produce a positive alternative message, and all the internal messes, I think there is a lot of blame to go around. The result is for the country, and for the Republican party, I think a real disaster. You have to give Stacey Abrams a lot of credit. She worked very hard, raised a lot of money, built a machine in Georgia now, and carried the state on Election Day and just carried the state for the U.S. Senate I think twice, by the time votes are counted. Republicans are looking at it very carefully and thinking that this is the future unless we learn how to beat it.
NEWT:
No. State legislatures are overwhelmingly Republican, Warnock is probably going to be a two year Senator because by the time he gets to Washington, he proves how radical he really is. If you watch what Nancy Pelosi has been doing in the House with the rules changes, a Democratic party crazy enough to outlaw mother and father with their new House rules, ending the prayer with “amen and awomen,” which is linguistically stupid. That’s going to be the same party that Chuck Schumer is going to be leading in the Senate, and Warnock will be one of the great cheerleaders. He is a genuine legitimate radical, which is not a position very many Georgians understand, and I suspect he will turn out to be a two year senator and replaced by a Republican in 2022.
NEWT:
I think two parts, one is, as you said, Joe Manchin, who has said over and over again he’s not going to do any of those things. Now, you know he still survives in West Virginia as sort of the last moderate Democrat, and it’ll be interesting to see if he has the guts to stand up to his caucus. The second thing is, look who’ll be up for election in two years. They’re going to face a decision: do I want to vote for things and get beaten back home? Because for large parts of the country these are not popular issues, you don’t get very many people running outside of the hard left, on issues that we see beginning to emerge. I think the average person will think they are pretty crazy. I do not think there is anything like a majority willing to be for the kind of things that AOC wants.
NEWT:
I think Vice President Pence is in a tough situation because he presides, but doesn’t control. I think if he were to make a bold radical decision, he would be over ridden by the Senate, so he has to figure out what is his honest Constitutional duty and do it, whether it makes the president happy or not. Second, I think, that what Ted Cruz is doing is basically right. The Constitution is very clear, the Federalist Papers explaining the Constitution are very clear. The Founding Fathers were terrified that a foreign government would manipulate our system to control the president we see this very clearly. I think they saw the Congress as the last place to judge, not just to be a clerk, but to judge. In 1877, Congress created a commission. Both in Jefferson’s election and John Quincy Adams’ election, it took over a hundred days to decide on the electors. This is not an automatic rubber-stamp. I think to say couldn’t we have 10 days without any way affecting the date of the inaugurate so Biden can draft an inaugural, Trump will draft his, but one will give an inaugural on the 20th of January. When 39 to 40% of the country believes this election is fraudulent, why can’t we have some sort of time-out period to get a commission to review the evidence and help the country come to grips with itself.
NEWT:
I don’t think Biden and allies, including the media, have any idea how hard it is going to be to get us out of the current economic disaster. As you point out, and I agree with you totally, how many small businesses have been crushed, how many people aren’t going to go out again and start up. This could be three or four year track recovery. If you look at the Obama-Biden track record, this could be 10-year recovery, and that process would devastate the Democratic party. Kevin Mcarthy I think will almost certainly be Speaker in two years, and the odds are that Mitch Mcconnell will be back as majority leader in two years but that’s what could affect the contest, what Donald Trump did for the economy.
Transcript:
Newt Gingrich
Mornings with Maria
January 6, 2020
NEWT:
I think based on what we know so far, Republicans did not turn out in the numbers they needed to. The Republican campaigns didn’t reach into the Latino community as effectively as President Trump had, if they had, then that alone might have made the margin of difference, and Stacey Abrams and the Democrats have done an amazing job turning out votes. You can argue whether 100% were totally — I thought it suspicious that late in the evening DeKalb county found another 50,000 ballots they missed somehow. I think nonetheless, in the big the Democratic counties, by the way, they wait to report until after all the Republican counties are in, so you end up with pretty clear understanding on the Democrat side of what it takes to win. I think it is a disaster, I am writing my newsletter on Gingrich 360 today about the Georgia GOP disaster. Everybody who said this is the most consequential runoff in history was right, and that means that Schumer is going to be majority leader. I think frankly the precincts that are still coming in that Ossoff is certainly going to be the victor, and you’re going to end up in a situation where Democrats have a real shot at radically changing America over the next two years.
NEWT:
A couple things: one, goes all the way back to when Governor Kemp decided that he would reject President Trump’s suggestion about Doug Collins, a conservative Congressman as Senator, he picked Kelly Loeffler and created a level of bad blood. So, you had a civil war underway between the governor and president. You have in Raffensperger, a secretary of state closer to Stacey Abrams, the Democratic organizer, he’s much closer to her than any Republican I know you of. You end up with a situation where the president didn’t coordinate with anybody when he proposed $2,000 a person, then McConnell decided not to bring it up in the Senate. You end up with Loeffler and Perdue out there with Republicans not delivering on what the president promised that I think also hurt. Finally, you have this bizarre phone call between the president and Secretary of State in Georgia, at a time when President Trump had to know that Raffensperger was his mortal enemy, yet he gets involved in this hourlong call just before the election, further muddying waters. I think between the consultants who ran a terrible campaign, the failure to produce a positive alternative message, and all the internal messes, I think there is a lot of blame to go around. The result is for the country, and for the Republican party, I think a real disaster. You have to give Stacey Abrams a lot of credit. She worked very hard, raised a lot of money, built a machine in Georgia now, and carried the state on Election Day and just carried the state for the U.S. Senate I think twice, by the time votes are counted. Republicans are looking at it very carefully and thinking that this is the future unless we learn how to beat it.
NEWT:
No. State legislatures are overwhelmingly Republican, Warnock is probably going to be a two year Senator because by the time he gets to Washington, he proves how radical he really is. If you watch what Nancy Pelosi has been doing in the House with the rules changes, a Democratic party crazy enough to outlaw mother and father with their new House rules, ending the prayer with “amen and awomen,” which is linguistically stupid. That’s going to be the same party that Chuck Schumer is going to be leading in the Senate, and Warnock will be one of the great cheerleaders. He is a genuine legitimate radical, which is not a position very many Georgians understand, and I suspect he will turn out to be a two year senator and replaced by a Republican in 2022.
NEWT:
I think two parts, one is, as you said, Joe Manchin, who has said over and over again he’s not going to do any of those things. Now, you know he still survives in West Virginia as sort of the last moderate Democrat, and it’ll be interesting to see if he has the guts to stand up to his caucus. The second thing is, look who’ll be up for election in two years. They’re going to face a decision: do I want to vote for things and get beaten back home? Because for large parts of the country these are not popular issues, you don’t get very many people running outside of the hard left, on issues that we see beginning to emerge. I think the average person will think they are pretty crazy. I do not think there is anything like a majority willing to be for the kind of things that AOC wants.
NEWT:
I think Vice President Pence is in a tough situation because he presides, but doesn’t control. I think if he were to make a bold radical decision, he would be over ridden by the Senate, so he has to figure out what is his honest Constitutional duty and do it, whether it makes the president happy or not. Second, I think, that what Ted Cruz is doing is basically right. The Constitution is very clear, the Federalist Papers explaining the Constitution are very clear. The Founding Fathers were terrified that a foreign government would manipulate our system to control the president we see this very clearly. I think they saw the Congress as the last place to judge, not just to be a clerk, but to judge. In 1877, Congress created a commission. Both in Jefferson’s election and John Quincy Adams’ election, it took over a hundred days to decide on the electors. This is not an automatic rubber-stamp. I think to say couldn’t we have 10 days without any way affecting the date of the inaugurate so Biden can draft an inaugural, Trump will draft his, but one will give an inaugural on the 20th of January. When 39 to 40% of the country believes this election is fraudulent, why can’t we have some sort of time-out period to get a commission to review the evidence and help the country come to grips with itself.
NEWT:
I don’t think Biden and allies, including the media, have any idea how hard it is going to be to get us out of the current economic disaster. As you point out, and I agree with you totally, how many small businesses have been crushed, how many people aren’t going to go out again and start up. This could be three or four year track recovery. If you look at the Obama-Biden track record, this could be 10-year recovery, and that process would devastate the Democratic party. Kevin McCarthy I think will almost certainly be Speaker in two years, and the odds are that Mitch McConnell will be back as majority leader in two years but that’s what could affect the contest, what Donald Trump did for the economy.
