Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich backed up President Donald Trump’s decision to cut a deal with congressional Democrats, and called the move a “one time deal” that was “very smart.”
“Would I have cut the deal if I was Speaker Ryan? Yes. Would I have cut the deal if I was President Trump? Yes,” Gingrich told “Fox and Friends” Friday.
“I want to see what the left does. If Pelosi and Schumer make this a habit they will have a rebellion on their left in a matter of weeks. This is a one time deal,” he said. “For the president it’s a very smart deal. He gets momentum the first week back. It changes the tone. It gets the money to Houston and it postpones the big fight over the debt ceiling. And I think the president’s attitude is, who knows what’s going to happen over 90 days.”
Gingrich said Trump weighed the cost of the damage from Harvey, and the impending hurricane in Florida and felt Washington needed to act and finally strike a deal.
“I think Trump saw a situation with everything he just saw in Houston, now looking at what’s coming in Florida and I think his feeling was we’ve got to get some movement in Washington. We spent eight months and didn’t get big things done. I want to cut a deal with somebody. I’m going to get something done this week … and he cut a 90 day deal. Now we’ll see what happens during the 90’s days.”
Gingrich continued to stress this was strictly a strategic move by Trump to free up political capital and keep moving his agenda forward.
“I think it’s an immediate tactical move by the president to get some momentum,” Gingrich concluded.
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