Posted on 07/13/2016 10:06:25 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Newt Gingrich, a leading candidate to be Donald Trump’s running mate, told Republicans at a closed-door meeting earlier this year that Trump is not a conservative, speaks to voters “at the lowest level of any candidate in either party,” and could lose in a landslide if he didn’t significantly change his approach to campaigning.
Gingrich suggested Trump’s move from campaigning to governing would be challenging: “How we make the transition from, you know, language for fourth graders to real policy, I don’t know.”
His comments came in a February speech in Washington to the Republican State Leadership Committee, months before he began angling to become Trump’s vice presidential choice.
Gingrich’s remarks, captured on a previously undisclosed recording of the speech reviewed by ProPublica, mixed admiration for Trump’s success in the primaries and skepticism about whether he could prevail in a general election.
“This is not a guy who’s shallow or simple, but he is a guy who knows an immense amount about marketing, which is why he talks at a fourth-grade level. He talks at the lowest level of any candidate in either party, not because he’s stupid,” Gingrich said told the crowd of executive-level political staffers and corporate sponsors. “He does it because he knows if you talk at a fourth-grade level everybody can understand you.”
Gingrich remained neutral in the GOP primary until May, when he endorsed Trump and said he wouldn’t rule out joining the ticket. He met Wednesday with Trump in Indiana and according to CNN was seen leaving a hotel in the same motorcade as Trump’s children.
In the February speech, Gingrich said he had no idea what kind of president Trump might be. “I do not believe anybody including Trump can tell you what a Trump presidency would be like,” Gingrich said.
The recording of the speech was made available to ProPublica by the Center for Media and Democracy, a Madison, Wisconsin, group with the stated goal of exposing corporate influences on politics. The group said it obtained the recording from someone who attended the meeting.
Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman, became Speaker of the House in 1995 after leading a Republican wave that captured the chamber from the Democrats in the midterm elections during the administration of Bill Clinton. He left Congress in 1999 and made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Gingrich spoke for just over half an hour to the Republican group’s Feb. 29 meeting in Washington, devoting about 10 minutes to Trump. His comments were a mix of pointed criticism and awe at Trump’s political skills. He likened Trump’s approach to “some weird combination of the Kardashians” soliciting hearty laughs from the audience. “I mean think about it, the whole tweeting, the whole continuous noise.”
Throughout much of the talk, Gingrich praised Trump’s prowess as a politician and negotiator, noting his success on TV, in real estate development and other ventures. He called him a change agent who effectively guts his political rivals: “He’s the grizzly bear in the room. He’s not normal.”
At one point, Gingrich suggested he was shocked to hear of a highly educated supporter of Trump’s. “I had a very sophisticated medical doctor in Des Moines write me two days ago and say he sent a thousand dollar check to Trump. And I wrote back and said what are you doing?” Gingrich said to laughs. “He said I have finally concluded that we have to kick over the table in Washington.”
Gingrich also agreed with what many Republicans during the primary process feared: “National Review’s right. Donald Trump’s not a conservative.” Instead, Gingrich characterized him as “an American nationalist” who uses a deliberately unpredictable mix of hostility against “stupidity,” liberals and political correctness.
Gingrich and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday evening.
In the speech, Gingrich said Trump “has found a formula which is worthy of study. I operate on the premise that when people are doing something really smart, even if I don’t like it or I don’t understand it, it’s my job to figure them out, not their job to figure me out.”
Still, Gingrich suggested Trump would lose big if he didn’t change his style in the general election campaign to follow Ronald Reagan rather than Barry Goldwater. Reagan in his successful 1980 campaign united Republicans around a compelling message of optimism, while Goldwater’s 1964 campaign failed when many voters perceived him as a candidate of the extreme right. Gingrich said he thought Trump would make this pivot.
“If he and his team understand this,” Gingrich said, “I suspect they will evolve rapidly.”
If he can perform this action any forth grader can understand, “close the border”, it will not be for naught.
No other candidate would promise that.
I think what it says about Newt is more important.
That picture will never go away no matter how many times Newt apologists attack anyone who dare mention it.
Newt is ruling class.
what a load of insidious crap. you poor ol proletariat will never be happy as long as you are forced to work for a living
you whine and moan about your betters as if you could end the perceived inequality.
Facts are painful aren't they?
I don’t think Newt is being negative towards Trump. Just calling it the way he sees it. Newt actually brings quite a bit of praise to the Trump campaign.
Many years ago, when I was in training as a radio announcer, I was advised to not try and show off my vocabulary, but speak in simple words and phrases. To speak at about a 5th grade level.
Listeners don’t want to need a thesaurus and a dictionary to figure out what you’re saying. Also, keeping it simple leaves less room for misunderstandings, not to mention making it easier to ad lib.
To many politicians try to impress journalists with tech-speak, and go over the heads of their audience.
In daily discourse, people don’t use big words in normal conversation, and the communicate with each other just fine.
I don’t think he talks at a fourth grade level. I think at his stump speeches, he spends too much time talking about the history of his campaign.
Complete crap. Show me a recording. Never heard of this source either.
Just a group that doesn’t want Gingrich to be veep.
It’s smart to speak above the 4th grade level. However, if you want to win the presidency, it’s wise to speak at the 4th grade level, even when you are smart enough to speak above it.
You lack the wisdom to understand this.
By the way, your only talent is ad hominem.
People are under the impression a VP and a President are supposed to be buddies. That is not the historic relationship. It is usually a position given to the loyal opposition to unify a party, etc.
I agree in context to this. Yep.
Newt fancies himself an elitist intellectual.
“It’s smart to speak above the 4th grade level. “
I ‘spoke’ to you above your grade level. You missed my point.
Good points. But I hate pandering. Maybe it works, but I still hate it. As far as the gender gap goes, I think Hitlery is a turn off to many women. She comes across as shrill and angry and the only women who really seem to support her are those with a feminist (in the ugly sense of the word), anti-male, or lesbian agenda.
Everyone behold the all-knowing TexasGator, who through its vast powers of intellect and omniscience has been able to discern the educational level of a fellow freeper whom it has never met in real life.
None of us are worthy of TexasGator’s perfect and omniscient presence!
LOL!
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