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.”
I actually agree with Newts assessment of trumps campaign. I think that is what is driving some people nuts the fact that he is trying to stay away from complicated messages and newt was right back in February about Trump having to change tactics for campaigning later on and trump has changed a bit but if you go to his campaign rally’s he keeps the message and the language of the message simple. what trump understands that is lost to a lot of politicians is that most people want you to identify the problem and in generalities say what you are going to do to fix the problem. they don’t want to hear the history about how the problem was not solved and how what you are going to do is different in solving the problem. they just want the politician to say this is a horrible problem and I am going to fix it.
I actually agree with Newts assessment of trumps campaign. I think that is what is driving some people nuts the fact that he is trying to stay away from complicated messages and newt was right back in February about Trump having to change tactics for campaigning later on and trump has changed a bit but if you go to his campaign rally’s he keeps the message and the language of the message simple. what trump understands that is lost to a lot of politicians is that most people want you to identify the problem and in generalities say what you are going to do to fix the problem. they don’t want to hear the history about how the problem was not solved and how what you are going to do is different in solving the problem. they just want the politician to say this is a horrible problem and I am going to fix it.
Seems pretty accurate to me....I suspect he has said the same thing to Trump.
meh....more reporting from closed door meetings....
The political class does not under stand Trump
That is hardly news
In other words, she thinks Trump is running cover for the democrats and has every intention of losing,p. is this a plausable theory ?
it almost seems believable to me everything is so crazy these days, it seems like the democrat side is driven by diabolical evil genius and the republican side is loaded with submissive brain dead dorkiness
Even I wasn’t a Trump fan in the beginning. I thought the whole thing was an elaborate publicity stunt.
It took awhile to get to know him. He kept turning out to be right about everything. Then I read *The Art of the Deal* and came to understand him much better.
Ultimately I came to realize that Trump’s unabashed patriotism is real as is his love for our troops. He has a mind like a sponge—he’s learning the issues with lightning speed.
And he’s a true Alpha male—something this country desperately needs after 8 years of a canary as* in charge.
So I can understand Newt being skeptical before he got to know Trump better.
There are no geniuses on the left.
I dunno. Bush stink or not, Condi would make the leftists heads explode!
She’s scary smart, indisputably *of colour*, female beyond a doubt, and has experience at very high levels of gov’t.
Yes, I know she has claimed to be uninterested, but damn, wouldn’t it be fun to watch the BLM, NAACP, NBPM and the rest of the leftist’s pets completely lose their 5#l+ when a fully qualified intelligient black woman is suddenly IN a position of REAL power?
They would come completely unglued!
He'd do just fine, if he happens to be Trump's choice.
Perhaps people reading this will NOW, finally, believe and heed my posts about Newtie and why he mustn’t be Trump’s VEEP choice.
He speaks out of both sides of his mouth and is NOT stable; Newtie has ALWAYS been like this!
Christie is a NO NO for VEEP!
Newt does not really like Trump but would like to try to control him via the post of Vice President.
Pence has never been vetted nationally, Christie has.
Pences loyalty to Trump is still in question as well.
Your problem is that Newt speaks above a 4th grade level ...
This is EXACTLY why Newt needs to go back to where he came from - it’s bad enough that Trump has a past history of being on most sides of every issue, he doesn’t need a running mate that is the same.
Trump doesn’t need an attack dog as VP, he seems PERFECTLY CAPABLE of attacking on his own. It makes a LOT MORE sense that Trump’s first (and only) real decision before the election should be someone of high stature, someone who is professional, low-key, etc. And that all points to Pence. He may be tied-in with the GOPe, but the rest of the country will see Trump as appointing serious people that intend to get to work and not clown around. Something that can’t be said for Newt...that’s just not who he is.
NOT NEWT! I LOVE Newt, but he can’t be trusted. Newt should have a high profile advisory position in the Trump administration, but definitely NOT VP.
The reason is that you can’t FIRE the VP. With Newt, there very well may come a time when Trump will need to say to Newt, “YOU’RE FIRED”.
As a close adviser, Newt would be great. He is BRILLIANT, can advise on almost any topic off the top of his head. BUT, there will be times that he will be off in left field sitting on a couch with Nancy Pelosi. You just have to be able to deal with these types of occurrences, which WILL happen.
to post that picture indicates your gross ignorance and perhaps even your stupidity
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
