Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich stated Friday on Fox News that GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz “unleashed the demons” after booting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year.
Gingrich appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss the reason behind House Republicans continuing to head for the exit, leaving the party with only a slim majority. Fox host Laura Ingraham asked the former House Speaker what he would say in response to fellow party members leaving if he were still in charge. (RELATED: House Republican Heads For The Exit, Leaves GOP With Razor-Thin Majority)
“Well I think, first of all, you’d have to have a totally different approach,” Gingrich responded. “We shouldn’t underestimate how bad what Matt Gaetz did was for the whole system. He unleashed the demons, he went after somebody who would raise $480 million, had gained seats for three elections in a row, and he drove Kevin McCarthy out of office. From that point on, it has been a disaster.”
“I don’t blame Johnson, I think Speaker Johnson has a hand that’s virtually impossible to play and that’s where I think some of the people just make it worse,” he continued. “This is the best argument I have seen for why we need not only to elect Donald Trump but to elect a very large majority with him. When I was speaker I had a lot more ability than Johnson did to run the House because I had a big enough majority. You could have five or 10 people who were crazy and you could still govern. He doesn’t have a one-vote majority.”
“The fact is there are 8, or 10, or 12 people who are going to get up every morning voting ‘no.’ The truth is, they don’t even know what they’re voting on. All they know when they wake up in the morning is, I’m going to be a ‘no’ today. So he really has no majority at all. You have to decide, sooner or later, you are going to realize the bills have been worse since McCarthy was gone. The Democrats are in greater control. The hardliners on the right have done nothing except make it worse. The Freedom Caucus right now has been a disaster in public policy terms. Do you think your job in life is to grandstand and complain while the other team runs over you? They’re doing a great job,” Gingrich stated.
Gaetz had filed his motion to oust McCarthy due to his acceptance of Democratic support, which reportedly breached an agreement with some Republicans and the former House Speaker. Following a vote from the House a day after, Democrats and eight Republicans joined together to vacate McCarthy from his position.
While McCarthy stated that he didn’t “regret standing up for choosing governance over grievance” and negotiating with Democrats, the former House Speaker announced in December that he would be retiring from politics leaving an open spot in Congress.