Newt Gingrich served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 2012 Gingrich was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination. He currently is co-host of CNN’s Crossfire. Gingrich is a domestic and foreign policy expert as well as a noted historian. Both Newt and his wife Callista share a love of history and they host/produce historical and public policy documentaries. Gingrich is also a prolific author, having published twenty-four books including 14 fiction and nonfiction New York Times best-sellers. Read more about Newt Gingrich here.
Q. On March 27, 2011, while speaking at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, you said:
“I have two grandchildren. Maggie is 11; Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age, they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”
Are you convinced that what you stated three years ago is still accurate?
A. We are continuing to lose the cultural war as the academic left, Hollywood and the news media continue to erode historic American values.
Look at the confusion among our elites about the nature of Hamas, a terrorist group which vows to kill every Jew. Look at the growing use of speech codes which will limit Christian and Jewish religious leaders from practicing and preaching their faiths. Look at the increase in the number of American born terrorists. Dozens—potentially hundreds—of Americans are now fighting alongside the Syrian rebels. In May one of them blew himself up in a suicide bombing, probably the first time an American has executed such an attack.
The increasingly visible anti-Semitism in Europe, where rioters are shouting “Death to the Jews,” where a number of synagogues were attacked in France and a Jewish museum was bombed in Belgium, may become a trend in America if we aren’t careful.
Q. Fast-forward 50 years, and say we find in a college-level U.S. history textbook three sentences about Newt Gingrich, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. How would that passage read?
A. Depends on who wrote the textbook.
Q. Now, if YOU wrote those three sentences, how would they read?
A. ‘Ended the 40-year Democratic Party control of the House. Balanced the budget for four straight years, for the only time in our lifetime. Reformed welfare with a work requirement which was the most successful conservative reform of social programs in a generation.’
Q. When you ran for president in 2012, was there anything you learned about our nation that surprised you?
A. It is a big, complex country with amazingly hospitable and friendly people.
Q. Based on your presidential campaign experience, are there any tips that you would like to pass on to the 2016 Republican presidential candidates?
A. Sadly, money really matters. You can’t win if you are drowned in false, negative advertising and lack the resources to correct the record.
Q. While speaking at the National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C. on July 27, 2014, you made light of how Democrats are trying to boost fundraising efforts by making their base think impeaching President Obama is a real possibility. Here is a quote from that speech:
“I think we ought to laugh at them and say, ‘If the best you can do after six years of the presidency is to yell impeachment and hope that you can raise money, it is a pretty pathetic presidency.’ And by the way, it is a pretty pathetic presidency.”
Do you believe that our nation will recover from such a “pathetic presidency,” even if a Republican is not elected to the White House in 2016?
A. We survived President Buchanan, whose incompetence led to the Civil War. We survived President Carter, who misunderstood the Soviets, the Iranians, the economy and the American people. As President Obama’s administration continues to fail in almost every area of policy, however, it is clear there will be a lot of damage we will have to recover from.
Cross-posted at BizPac Review
