Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Slams Republicans Holding Spending Bills: Hurting GOP

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slammed Republican House members who are holding up passing spending bills to keep the U.S. government running, saying that they are hurting the party and the country by playing games.

Gingrich made the remarks during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity while discussing the bills that need to be passed.

Gingrich said that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was in a tough spot because of some Senate Republicans who want to spend more, a president who wants to spend trillions more, and House Democrats who are not willing to budge on anything.

“The problem is you got to pass a rule to get it to the floor,” he said. “Twice now, different Republicans have decided to stop the bill from going to the floor. Why? Because each one has their own particular need, or their own particular fixation. Now, there are one or two, like Congressman Gaetz, who I think is frankly deranged, who you’re never gonna get. He hates Kevin, he’s not going to vote for Speaker McCarthy. He openly says he wants to get rid of him, which is his prerogative. But that means one less vote that Kevin has in order to get things done. The others, I think, are playing a game that could blow up on them.”

“In the end, either the House Republicans find a way to talk with themselves, get this sorted out, and pass these things, or you’re inevitably going to have some coalition with the Democrats with bigger spending further to the left, more radical policies,” he continued. “I mean, the world’s not going to end, though somebody somewhere is going to find a solution. And I think, too, for example, I think Speaker McCarthy yesterday, thought they had the votes, they walked onto the floor. Three members switched who had voted yes the day before, now voted no. I mean this is the sort of stuff when I was Speaker that would have driven me nuts. Luckily, I had a bigger margin. I think it’s very hard to see right now how this is going to work out; I think it will work out. But it’s a little hard to see how it’s gonna work out.”

Gingrich took a shot at the House Freedom Caucus, who he said were “cheerfully screwing things up,” saying that they would eventually cede victory to moderate Republicans.

“We have a number of members from districts that Joe Biden carried by a good margin, those members can decide in the end, they don’t want the government to close, they’re not gonna get punished back home,” he said. “They’re not gonna get beaten in a primary, because they’re in districts where people are gonna say, ‘Yeah, that’s a smart thing to do.’”

Gingrich said that some of the Republicans in the House couldn’t play chess or even checkers and that they would struggle to play tic-tac-toe.

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“I will say the members who are capriciously switching around and playing games aren’t just hurting the Republican Party, they’re hurting the country,” he concluded. “We need, because they’re taking the focus off of Biden, this gives the news media a chance to talk about House Republicans not able to do things, rather than talk about all the things that the three committees are finding, or in a positive way, talk about Jody Arrington, and the 20 Republicans who just passed out a balanced budget for the first time since I was Speaker.”

WATCH:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slams Republicans who are holding up spending bills that threaten to shut down the U.S. government: “the members who are capriciously, switching around and playing games aren’t just hurting the Republican Party, they’re hurting the country.” pic.twitter.com/ewmBLXatlJ

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) September 23, 2023