Newt Gingrich: Boehner Had A Much Harder Job Than I Did As Speaker Because Barack Obama Is A Much More Manipulative & Demagogic Figure Than Bill Clinton
Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, called into Kilmeade & Friends to talk about the surprising resignation of Speaker John Boehner.
Listen here:
Was Boehner’s reluctance to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood hurtful to the Republican Party?
“No. Boehner’s challenge was, and McCarthy’s challenge will be, how do you build a communications system that will overcome the total bias of the elite media and to overcome the power of the president to communicate? I respect John a great deal and I think, frankly, that he had a much harder job than I did because Barack Obama is a much more manipulative and demagogic figure than Bill Clinton was.”
Why do you think John Boehner stepped down as Speaker of the House?
“He was very worn down. The hardcore group of 30 or 40 members had been nagging him all year, and John is a very devout catholic and I think he had always hoped to have the Pope address a joined session. Yesterday I was with him…and I went to Boehner’s office after the speech and this is probably the high point of his life. He was so excited and felt so fulfilled having the Pope there that I suspect last night that he thought to himself ‘why would I keep getting beaten up, it ain’t going to get any better, this is the high point.’ I think in his mind, he is leaving on a real high and he is very honored to have been able to both to bring Prime Minister Netanyahu and Pope Francis to joint sessions.”
Do you agree with Governor John Kasich that being Speaker of the House is the hardest political job you can have in this country?
“Yeah and the reason is very straight forward, the President of the United States has an enormously difficult job but he appoints his cabinet. If the cabinet doesn’t agree with him they can leave. The Speaker is elected by his members. So he in a sense is leading a group who has the power to permanently decide to disagree with him and do what they want to, they are independent agents. If you are an activist speaker, trying to get things done and particularly of you are up against a president of the other party, it is an enormously exhausting job, you just burn energy like crazy. Because every single member has the right to call on you, all sorts of allies have the right to call on you. The news media has the right to call on you so you spend all day, every day, gradually getting exhausted and that’s part of what I think happened to John Boehner.”
Will President Obama be upset that Boehner is resigning?
“I think Barack Obama is happy anytime republicans are fighting. I think he will find that Kevin McCarthy is a very formidable Speaker.”
Is there any doubt in your mind that Kevin McCarthy will be the next speaker?
“No. Kevin is very bright, very articulate and has worked very hard and in a very short election like this, it will be very hard for somebody to be able to overtake him. In fact, I think it’s very possible he won’t even have an opponent.”
