Newt Gingrich
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last night that the establishment is scared of Donald Trump because he “didn’t belong to a secret society” and wasn’t involved in any of the rituals associated with such groups. [1] With a #NeverTrump hashtag and a growing list of high-profile people and groups declaring that they will never support Donald Trump as the nominee of the Republican Party, the effort to block Trump from winning the nomination is gaining force. But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday previewed what he said will be the single most effective argument for strong-arming anti-Trump Republicans back into the fold if he is the nominee. “You are either going to elect Hillary Clinton who will, I think, be the most corrupt president in American history, or you’re going to help elect Donald Trump,” Gingrich told Fox News Tuesday morning. “There’s no middle ground. You can’t say virtuously, ‘Oh, I’m going to be neutral.’ If you’re neutral, you’re helping elect Hillary Clinton.” [2] And while he declined to endorse Trump, saying that he would support whomever the party nominates, Gingrich defended Trump against claims that he is not a real conservative – a key talking point for other candidates, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. While Trump is “not a traditional conservative,” Gingrich conceded, he is “an anti-left, anti-political correctness, anti-stupidity American nationalist, and he applies those four basic principles to try and figure out where he’s going and what he’s going to do. Sometimes that makes him complicated for conservatives because they have these cookie cutters – you are for this, you’re not for that.” [2]
