Speaker 1: Newt Gingrich was a history professor in Georgia in the
Speaker 1: seventies and he got interested in politics and decided to
Speaker 1: run and he ended up being a member of the
Speaker 1: House of Representatives representing his state of Georgia. UM and
Speaker 1: worked his way up until he was the Speaker of
Speaker 1: the House. Then, after forty plus years of Democrats controlling
Speaker 1: the House of Representative, in some belief that demographically Democrats
Speaker 1: would control the House forever, Newt put together the Contract
Speaker 1: with America and was able to lead a Republican revolution.
Speaker 1: He called it in four for Republicans take take the
Speaker 1: House back after forty plus years, and he did a
Speaker 1: battle with Bill Clinton. If you were following politics at
Speaker 1: the time, it is very, very exciting time to be alive. Um.
Speaker 1: Since then, he's continued as an historian, to write a
Speaker 1: lot of books and stay active in politics. Ran for
Speaker 1: president and uh did pretty well back there in two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve. But now he's out with a brand new
Speaker 1: book called Trump and the American Future, solving the great
Speaker 1: problems of our time. New Gingrich, Welcome to the Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty Show. Appreciate the time this morning. Well listen,
Speaker 1: it's great to be with you and they have a
Speaker 1: chance to chat. Be very excited by the new book
Speaker 1: because I think as you go into this particular election,
Speaker 1: I think having an ability to effects and figures and
Speaker 1: to be able to talk with your friends and neighbors
Speaker 1: can be very very important. Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's
Speaker 1: it's more difficult than ever. So before we get into that,
Speaker 1: You're you're in a historian. You've been around a long time.
Speaker 1: You know. I found this kind of interesting. You've been
Speaker 1: around the entire time I've been following politics. You're still
Speaker 1: on younger than Joe Biden, which is which I find astounding. Um. Uh,
Speaker 1: it is, it's an astounding fact. Um. But you're an historian.
Speaker 1: Where does the current time we're living in rank I mean,
Speaker 1: with the pandemic, with the economy, with the racial tensions
Speaker 1: and everything like that, it seems to me it's about
Speaker 1: as crazy as anything we've had in our nation's history. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly not be as bad as the Civil War,
Speaker 1: But I think if you take that off, the equation, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's in the same league with with FDR going
Speaker 1: through the depression in World War Two. Uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: the combination of having a pandemic which the Chinese lied
Speaker 1: about consistently and made it much worse, having the public
Speaker 1: health people say closed everything down. So the government for
Speaker 1: the first time I don't ever remember ever before government's
Speaker 1: deliberately creating a depression, which is what they did. And
Speaker 1: then for a people who are used to being very free,
Speaker 1: telling us all to shut up and stay at home
Speaker 1: and do exactly what your local official tells you. And
Speaker 1: then finally, with with weeks and weeks of of of
Speaker 1: unhappiness and tention building up, you had the tragedy of
Speaker 1: George Floyd getting killed and the way he got killed
Speaker 1: give an eight and a half in a tape of
Speaker 1: people saying you're killing him and then you watch him dying.
Speaker 1: And that led to and you know, that was a
Speaker 1: spark which I think will be seen as historic and
Speaker 1: which led to a lot of different activities, some of
Speaker 1: them totally legitimate and some of them are barbaric and
Speaker 1: totally illegitimate. So when you swirl all that together and
Speaker 1: you combine that with a very left wing news media
Speaker 1: that just hates Trump, um, you really have an interesting
Speaker 1: As a historian, you have a really interesting time. How
Speaker 1: do you feel about this move of journalism. You saw
Speaker 1: what happened with the New York Times, the revolt they
Speaker 1: had in their you know, their editorial section there um
Speaker 1: and they pulled it up, ed from a sitting US
Speaker 1: senator with a reasonable argument he's making. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: left wing media, um that understates it. How does that
Speaker 1: fit in that we don't even have we don't have
Speaker 1: any common news sources we can go to to even
Speaker 1: find out what the stories of the day are. All Right, Well,
Speaker 1: I think you have to start with the idea these
Speaker 1: are not news media. These are propaganda systems for the left.
Speaker 1: They have no relationship to news media. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: think you really have to start from that perspective. And
Speaker 1: then I think you've got to decide that you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna find ways to learn things on your own,
Speaker 1: but you do you canna expect them to always be
Speaker 1: anti Trump, you know. So, so Trump goes to West
Speaker 1: Point and gave what I thought was one of the
Speaker 1: better speeches of his presidency. The young cadets I think
Speaker 1: paid really careful attention. I think it was a very
Speaker 1: positive day. And immediately the media starts to focus on
Speaker 1: whether or not he walked down this long ramp too
Speaker 1: carefully and was that a sign of age? Now, if
Speaker 1: you watch Donald Trump and you watch Joe Biden, the
Speaker 1: idea that the person you'd worry about being too old
Speaker 1: as Trump is crazy and Trump has the energy of
Speaker 1: a thirty year old. But and he made a very
Speaker 1: clear point. He said, look, there was no handrail. It
Speaker 1: was a slippery surface, and I was wearing leather shoes,
Speaker 1: and I knew if I fell that the eight media
Speaker 1: would go crazy. So yeah, I walked down very carefully.
Speaker 1: And if you're watching, when he gets to the bottom,
Speaker 1: he sort of trots off and he's fine. But they
Speaker 1: were looking for what is it we can use to
Speaker 1: clutter this speech because the speech is too good. And
Speaker 1: if we let the American people see the speech, they
Speaker 1: might get a positive view of Trump. We're talking with
Speaker 1: former speak We're talking with former Speaker of the House
Speaker 1: and a historian and author of many many books. New
Speaker 1: Gingrich ran for president himself. Um, the book is Trump
Speaker 1: in the American Future, Solving the Great Problems of our Time.
Speaker 1: You have Trump in the title, but it seems to
Speaker 1: me the problems of our time, you know, are are
Speaker 1: going to be there. Whether whether Trump is president or not.
Speaker 1: What do you lay out as the problems of our time. Well,
Speaker 1: I think, first of all, you've got to get the
Speaker 1: economy growing again. Nothing else works if we can't get
Speaker 1: the economy growing again. The second, I think that you
Speaker 1: have to continue to learn how to cope with the virus,
Speaker 1: partly by getting things that are better therapies, partly by
Speaker 1: getting ultimately some kind of vaccine, and by learning how
Speaker 1: to focus on hotspots and surround them and stop them
Speaker 1: before they get before they infect very many people. I
Speaker 1: think third, we have to have a basic argument about
Speaker 1: whether or not this country is not a function. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, when you when you look at how bad
Speaker 1: the schools are and some of our cities. In the Baltimore,
Speaker 1: which is the fourth most expensive city in the country
Speaker 1: for education, there are entire buildings that do not have
Speaker 1: a single student passing the state exam, not one. So
Speaker 1: they're clearly not schools in any traditional sense. And this
Speaker 1: is a crisis because it leaves these kids with no
Speaker 1: usable skills, no ability to survive, they no wonder, they
Speaker 1: feel cheated and frustrated, etcetera. So you know, I think, um,
Speaker 1: it's just it's amazing that we have not been willing
Speaker 1: to come to grips with some of these things. You know,
Speaker 1: I think again we need to come to groups with
Speaker 1: with with a better policing. But that's what I actually believe.
Speaker 1: That probably means more police paid better and with with
Speaker 1: with stricter rules, and probably with every one of them
Speaker 1: having a body camera. Uh. That requires changing the union contracts,
Speaker 1: which is the same problem we have with the big
Speaker 1: city school system. As long as long as you have
Speaker 1: union contracts which protect the incompetent, you're gonna have systems
Speaker 1: that decay. You were Speaker of the House, New Gingrich,
Speaker 1: and um, it was a contentious time, and you and
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton and the battles and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But man, it's it seems like everybody loved everybody. To
Speaker 1: compare to today, when you you know, the President will
Speaker 1: call Nancy Pelosi crazy and should call him morbidly obese
Speaker 1: and back and forth. Do you see us ever returning
Speaker 1: to anything even closer to uh, to cooperation and bipartisanship
Speaker 1: anytime soon? Well, when one side wins, and the reason
Speaker 1: is so intense right now is that both sides see
Speaker 1: themselves almost winning and almost being annihilated, and that maximizes
Speaker 1: the pressure and maximizes the emotions that are at stake,
Speaker 1: and so until that gets solved, until one side clearly
Speaker 1: is dominant, it's going to remain that that intense and
Speaker 1: that better. That is fascinating. I'm glad we had you
Speaker 1: on just for that question and answer right there. The
Speaker 1: book is Trump and the American Future, Solving the great
Speaker 1: problems of our time. Smart guy, lots of perspective and
Speaker 1: obviously experienced new gring. Thanks for your time today. Thank
Speaker 1: you enjoyed it. That was interesting. Honestly, that was worth
Speaker 1: the interview for that, and uh reminded me. I've heard
Speaker 1: George will say that too. This will stay as as
Speaker 1: bitter as it is until one side wins, clearly wins.
Speaker 1: And you know, it doesn't have to be a pcent
Speaker 1: to nothing. It probably just needs to get to somewhere
Speaker 1: sixty forty, maybe seventy thirty. But then you've got a
Speaker 1: clear you know, leading um uh well side that that's
Speaker 1: that's leading the way on the other side trying to
Speaker 1: uh group back together. But when it's this tight and
Speaker 1: every battle is so close, we're either going to win
Speaker 1: or be annihilated. That's how you end up with, you know, this,
Speaker 1: this knife fight that we're in on every single issue,
Speaker 1: every single day. That's really interesting.