"The Rock of Talk" interviews Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on 2022 Midterms

Interview of Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): ABQ.FM and Rock of Talk.com. I'm joined by former house speaker, Newt Gingrich. You guys are all too familiar with him. And, of course, you see him; he ran for President in 2012. But the thing that I remember him most is, of course, the “Contract with America.” It seems like we have a new “Contract with America.” Welcome into the KIVA Newt Gingrich and into Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks so much for being here.

Newt Gingrich: Awesome. I'm delighted to be there to talk with you. And I do think that Kevin McCarthy's “Commitment to America,” which people can see, www.commitmenttoamerica.com is very parallel to what we did and is a remarkable document. If you go to www.commitmenttoamerica.com, you'll see over 150 specific positive proposals to try to get America back working again.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): It's nice to have structure since we've been floating on all the way. And we're gonna go back little ways just because we just celebrated 31 years, actually, since Clarence Thomas was brought in. We'll get to the legislative in the races and all that stuff. That's very important. And McCarthy's doing a great job, and I'm glad you're helping guide all of that. I've seen you plenty of times on Fox News as well. But going back to judicial stuff, we're now talking about some of that, you know, heritage. Here's a man who didn't speak a word on the bench for 10 years, Newt. And here we are talking about Affirmative Action. Now, this is kind of important. The Supreme Court's taking over, and that's sort of the thing that we control 6 to 3 and from what it looks like. But you, of course, addressed it on your transgender note directly to Joe Biden over the weekend, and that sees where that two sorts of converge in coming together. Please give me your thoughts on some heritage and the strength that we have right now with the Supreme Court.

Newt Gingrich: Well, I, look, I think the, one of the things which will make Trump a very consequential president is the Supreme Court that he left, is he appointed three constitutional conservatives are nominated, and the Senate confirmed three constitutional conservatives. That meant that for the first time since the early 1930s, you have a conservative court, and it is reverting to actually enforcing the Constitution, doing precisely what former Justice Sirica used to call for us to do. And, I think that it's really, really important to remember that we are dealing with a liberal worldview, which wanted to rewrite the constitution disrespects to that question of independence and would change America in dramatic ways.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): We saw what happened with Justice Kavanaugh over the summer, the threats to his life. And now we're seeing the Democrats utilizing this in the one-off thing that happened over the past weekend with Paul Pelosi, husband to Nancy Pelosi here, and trying to change the two things that we're running on actual crime and economy. Now, inflation, you just got the three-quarter bump about an hour and a half earlier today. And that is gonna have some consequences. But I know you're big on these predictions, and we're gonna start there. We know that that's the two-prong approach. No, no need to really kind of beat that down. But your thoughts for the Senate seem to be hit or miss; we've heard 50-50 of the plus one, which it currently is; we've listened to as high as 55, 45. Governor Scott has put that out there. Where do you see it? Why do you see it, and what will be the tough race in your mind?

Newt Gingrich: Well, I think that it's essential to recognize that when you have the current crisis in the cost of living, whether it's buying food or buying gasoline or buying heating oil, or in the genuine problem now that we may be on the edge of running out of diesel fuel, which would be a disaster, people haven't even begun to think about, because it's so much of what the country depends on is delivered by trucks who use diesel. And you then have the problem of crime. We have the worst crime. We've had at least, I would say, 40 years or more. And we have a wide open border with cartels, fentanyl, and human trafficking. You have schools that have been teaching radicalism. And one of the side effects of the Covid School closings as people began to learn what was being taught to their children. And they were just appalled, and all over the country, I hear from people who are so angry at the way the schools have gone from educating to brainwashing and from teaching people to think to brainwashing. And so all of these things are swirling together. A Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that women in the suburbs have moved 27% From Democrat to Republican. Since August. And I think it combines crime, inflation, and radicalism in the schools. So I think these things are all moving. I give you that as the background because if that's what's happening, it's happening everywhere. So that puts New Hampshire in play where General Baldoc, I think, probably will beat Maggie Hassan.

Newt Gingrich: It probably puts Pennsylvania in play where I think the Oz is gonna win Fetterman cause Fetterman has been the most pro-criminal statewide official in the country. He voted to re-release 25 murderers when nobody else on the five-person board would vote with him. I think you're, almost certainly, going to end up winning Arizona, where Mark Kelly has failed to develop, you know, he's failed to fight to control the border. And that's the biggest issue in Arizona. I think you're gonna see Adam Laxalt, the former Attorney General win the Senate seat in Nevada.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): And the son of Pete Domenici here in our state of New Mexico, who, of course, you knew was one of your colleagues.

Newt Gingrich: Oh, yeah. Pete was a great human being. I would also say that there's a real shot that Tiffany's smiley is gonna win in Washington state. She's certainly within striking distance, and people are very, very tired of her opponent, who's been there for over 30 years. And finally, in Georgia, I think that Herschel Walker's just gonna beat Warnock, the Democratic Senator. Herschel is a remarkable competitor and has gone all out and had a terrific run.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): That's very close to you, too, the Georgia race being from there, not to mention that's where you taught, but will that go to a runoff speaker?

Newt Gingrich: It might. I have a hunch that's not going to, but some of my close friends think it is. In the end, I suspect that Walker will win by a more extensive, by more than 50%. Let's go to the; he's ahead in the most recent poll, 47/46. But the governor's doing very well, and the governor's now campaigning with him, and on the other side, Stacey Abrams is collapsing and behaving more and more idiotically. I mean, it's astonishing that she's grown desperate, and as a result, she is saying and doing things that make no sense.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): Absolutely. She's been doing that for as long as she's been around. We're with Speaker New Gingrich. He is giving us his insights, and we're gonna drill down here to New Mexico very quickly because some blue state bleeds over us coming in, turning New York, Michigan, of course. Oregon as well. But before we get to that, let's get to the house. What is your forecast for that? You can give us hard numbers and surprises if you want. Well,

Newt Gingrich: Somewhere between plus 20 and plus 60. The most likely number is 44.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): 44. Okay. I like that. That sounds really good. That puts us, I'm pushing it at 227/208, but I think you're thinking even higher. And we're looking at the President's ratings right now. This comes from Gallup's morning Presidential Job Approval and seat change in midterm election years. This could be one of the most formidable ones, given that he is at 40, the second lowest of all time, and hasn't been that bad since 2006 with George W. Bush, who went negative 30 on that. Trump went negative 40 in 2018. And it looks like Obama, as you know, back in 2010, right before he ran for president, went negative 63. So that's a reasonable estimate right there at negative 44. We're gonna stick with that, and that looks good. Let's go to those gubernatorial races. New York's gotta be surprising to you, Michigan, no surprise. I know you're happy with Tudor Dixon. But hey, look at what Keri Lake is doing taking the national helm. Your thoughts overall in a way that sort of changes the overall composition.

Newt Gingrich: Well again, I mean, I mean, I've been watching Lee Zeldin, for example, in New York, and when Hochul and, and there, and their debates said, You know what, why, why do you want me to talk about locking up prisoners? Why does it matter to you? Well, if you lived in New York and looked at the amount of violence, carjacking, rapes, and murders, you'd know, you know, you'd think, Governor, don't you understand how bad this has gotten? And I think that there's, there's, to me, it's no accident. In addition, one school issue affects about a million Orthodox Jews and the left ones, forcing them to accept cultural, left-wing ideas in their schools. And Zeldin was the one guy who stood up and fought for them. So I think many things are going his way in New York, in addition to building an anti-Democrat, Anti-Biden mood. You know, and I, I think you see something similar. Ronchetti is now much closer than people thought he'd be in the governor's race in New Mexico. Yeah. I believe that Keri Lake is clearly gonna win in Arizona. She may be the most impressive single candidate in the country right now.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): I agree. Yeah. Her ability to decimate the media in those quick hits as she micced up for that stuff is absolutely viral. Thanks for mentioning New Mexico. And I wanna spend the last three minutes jabbering former DGA head, Michelle Lujan Grisham. We were the lockdown kings, or in her case, the queen of this country. We are highly dependent upon the federal government. In fact, Joe Biden is coming in tomorrow at about noon. Time to go ahead. And stump, surprisingly there, you know, Hillary's back out on the stumping even on media. We know Obama went out last week. All sorts of ridiculousness. But you know, there's, he's approaching a lot of safe places. So, could you give me your thoughts? This would be the last state to flip Speaker Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich: Well, and here, here's, here's the problem they have. You bring in Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden; you remind everyone that this is a national election. You know that they don't lower the price of gasoline; they don't drop the cost of food. They don't solve the problem of crime. They go around and, and, and give speeches. And so, I don't think it's, you know, if I were a candidate on the Democratic Party side, I wouldn't want Joe Biden to come in. You understand that Hillary Clinton lost in 16’ because she's not likable. So having Hillary come by to lecture may not be the best way to develop things. I create many of these ideas in a podcast called Newt’s World. And we do three a week that are free, and we do 'em too because I think the country needs a collection of positive solutions to help us get back on track again. And we've gotta make this country work again. And I think that's a significant way to consider the near future. It's not just about defeating bad people; it's about beating bad ideas and replacing them with better ones.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): And that's what you've been doing for a long time. You gave kudos to Speaker McCarthy now as well. Very quickly, we've got Mark Ronchetti. We've got a high level of quality candidates. He's a former news person, just like Keri Lake is. He won his debates outright, but he is against a democratic blue wall here in our state. If we could go ahead and turn the state of New Mexico, what's it gonna take in your eyes being the last state, going from blue to red here in these all-important midterms? What are your thoughts?

Newt Gingrich: It's straightforward. Go to the grocery store and ask people if they like what they're paying, and then go to the gas station and ask if they want what they're paying. It's a big state. People have to live and drive long distances, and it gets more expensive the more extended the left is in charge.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): One more time, your podcast, so we can go ahead and get it out to everyone here.

Newt Gingrich: It's called Newt's World.

The Rock of Talk (Eddy): There it is. Speaker Gingrich, thank you so much for taking the time with us here in New Mexico.

Newt Gingrich: Glad to do it.