Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) “unleashed the demons” when he spearheaded an effort last year to oust former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his leadership post.
Gingrich was responding to a question from Fox host Laura Ingraham about why some House Republicans, including Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), have been leaving Congress before the end of their terms.
Gingrich said that, in part, Gaetz’s effort last year ending McCarthy’s tenure as Speaker should not be downplayed and that, since then, the lower chamber has been a “disaster.”
“Well I think, first of all, you’d have to have a totally different approach,” Gingrich said Friday on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“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.”
The former House Speaker said he does not blame current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the House’s legislative performance because McCarthy’s ouster put him in a difficult position.
“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 said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of Johnson’s top critics since he took the gavel, filed a motion to vacate the Speakership on Friday, the same procedural move that stripped McCarthy of the gavel in October. She said it was a “warning,” but also stated she didn’t “have a timeline” for when she would force the vote on the motion, which is not privileged and therefore won’t be considered until after the Easter recess.
Gingrich said all of these developments are great justification for why Republicans not only need former President Trump in the White House, but a larger majority in the House to make room for disagreements when trying to pass legislation.
“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,“ Gingrich said. “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.”