Politics

‘It Is Exactly What Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Did’: Newt Gingrich Turns The Tables On ‘The View’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich turned the tables Tuesday on “The View,” laying out the differences between President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton with regard to impeachment.

Gingrich sat in for Joy Behar, and Abby Huntsman pressed him to revisit the Clinton impeachment — over which he presided — for the sake of comparison.

WATCH:

Huntsman began by pointing out that Gingrich had once occupied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s seat. “You did go down the impeachment road,” she said. “If you were Nancy today and you had a president that did exactly what Trump did that was a Democrat, what would you do?”

“Well first of all, I’m sitting here trying to be Joy and now you want me to be Nancy. All I can tell you is this is getting to be a pretty heavy load to carry psychologically,” Gingrich laughed. “But there are two big differences.” (RELATED: Newt Gingrich Says NYT Owner And Nancy Pelosi Should Release Their Tax Returns)

Gingrich then laid out the fact that an independent counsel had delivered a report indicating that Clinton was guilty of a felony. “I think had speaker Pelosi referred the Ukrainian phone call to a special counsel, they could do a lot of things,” he added.

The former speaker also mentioned sending someone to interview former Democratic House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, who spearheaded the Nixon impeachment inquiry, in order to ensure that the process was fair.

“Rodino had a set of rules that were very bipartisan and we brought them back and implemented exactly what Rodino did,” Gingrich explained. “Today, the White House doesn’t have a lawyer in these hearings. Secretary Pompeo’s staff went into a hearing, he has no lawyer there, has no idea what they’re saying.”

“Sounds like you would do similar to what Nancy is doing,” Huntsman pressed.

“No,” Gingrich fired back immediately. “Because what she is doing , A, she has no referral that says he’s guilty of anything. B, she’s not following rules that are fair. She has no rules here which are fair which allow the person being accused to face their accuser.”

Huntsman tried again. “You admit that it’s an abuse of power though, right, what he did on the phone call?” she asked

Gingrich pushed back, saying that he had reread the transcript again in anticipation of that question and did not believe it was.

“Then what is? When I think about a president’s role, if you call a foreign president and you ask them to investigate your opponent in a presidential race —” Huntsman began.

Sunny Hostin interjected: “And look into the DNC server as well.”

“No, I’m actually curious, if that’s not abuse of power, what is?” Huntsman turned to Gingrich.

“It is exactly what Hillary Clinton’s campaign did,” Gingrich shot back. “Notice the difference. The Clinton campaign paid to create a dossier —”

“Hillary — y’all are — tried her, you beat her. She’s not the president. The man who’s the president broke the law,” Whoopi Goldberg insisted.

“He didn’t break the law. He did not —” Gingrich tried to respond but Goldberg cut him off, saying, “We’re not going to let you spin” as the network went to a commercial break.