Newt Gingrich: Do Repubs in Congress Understand the Danger of the Left?

I have said for years, every Republican needs to run against the Democrats and the left at least as much as against his or her opponent. They all individualize it. Well, I'm a better candidate than Jones here. Instead of saying, folks, if you vote Democrat, the left comes into power, the left wants to destroy this civilization. Why don't they do that?

Well, I think first of all, when you have the news media dominated to the degree it is today, it takes a lot of courage. We underestimate how courageous Reagan was, and for that matter, how courageous Trump is. It's easier to see in Trump's case because they hate him so deeply and they're so vicious that it's just all over the place. But Reagan had the same challenge. They constantly wanted Reagan to be normal, and he just pleasantly refused to, and he kept saying the things he believed in, and he changed history as a result. I think we underestimate how relatively few people there are who can do that, which is frankly why I'm so deeply in favor of Trump. I mean, for all of his weaknesses and all of his lack of professional political and governmental experience, he has the sheer raw courage to stand up to the left and to slug it out. And I think what he's been doing is remarkable. And I see the beginnings of a younger generation of new Republicans coming along who are beginning to get it and who begin to understand that in fact that's the fight we have to have. So I'm a little more encouraged by the rise of that next generation. But the older generation frankly had been taught to accommodate, you know, don't be unreasonable. Don't challenge the natural patriotism of your enemies, even if they are actively trying to destroy the United States. And I think working your way through that has been really extraordinary. And frankly, had anybody but Trump been nominated in '16, one, we would probably have lost to Hillary, but two, even if they'd won the election, they wouldn't have understood that this is a period when you've got to be prepared to profoundly take on the left and to accept the psychological cost of doing that.

Do you think the average member of Congress in the Republican Party understands the existential threat the left poses?

No, no reason they should. Wow.

I mean, there is a reason they should. I think there is a reason.

I think, I think more, I think more people are learning that. And I think frankly, as you look at the 1619 Project and you look at the radicalism of the New York Times and the You look at Black Lives Matter and what their underlying platform is. I think it's beginning to sink in, and I think the literal violence of tearing down statues and of looting stores, it's beginning to sink in. But in a free society, it's very hard to get people to draw conclusions that require as much conflict as you and I are talking about. And Lincoln understood this. This is why if you watch Lincoln in the first year of his presidency, he's very careful. And for example, he spends months waiting patiently until the South finally attacks Fort Sumter, because he knows that if he's too aggressive, he'll be seen as the aggressor. If he's the aggressor, he's gonna lose Kentucky and Maryland and Delaware. And then he, as he once said, he hoped God was on his side, but he had to have Kentucky.

So can you name, uh, putting you on the spot, can you name names of people who give you hope in the Republican Party?

Yeah, I would say that in addition to Mike Pence and Donald Trump, I would say that Tom Cotton, who's recently done very well in a little fight with the New York Times, and I think Cotton won that round pretty decisively. Um, I, I think, uh, that you have a number of other people who are remarkable in their own right. I think it's very easy to underestimate how much courage it takes to, in fact, be willing to live out your life as the senator from South Carolina has with all of the attacks he gets. I mean, if you're an African American who is, willing to stand up and actually do things. And Tim Scott, I think, has shown great steadiness under fire, not backed off an inch, and actually is very much us philosophically. So I would list him in that kind of group that I think are going to make a big difference. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin certainly is in that league, understands how deep this fight is. So, you know, and I think frankly Trump did a good job of picking Mark Meadows because Meadows had always—

that's right—

understood and help create the Freedom Caucus out of this genuine belief. And I would say that Meadows, um, probably is giving a conservative intellectual coherence to the White House staff, which it has not had up until now.

The book Newt Gingrich has just written, it's just out now, was Trump and the American Future.