Republicans Must Listen to Voters and Get Back to Problem-Solving

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, with us today is Newt Gingrich, Speaker Newt Gingrich. To me, he’ll always be the speaker and one of the most knowledgeable Americans we have. Well, Newt, we had a tough Tuesday on Election Day. Give us your evaluation of, how do I usually say, where the heck are we?

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, first of all, as Republicans, we need to be honest and say we go whooped. I mean, you can’t have this kind of an outcome. Every single elected statewide candidate in Texas, every one was defeated. Now, that’s a revolution.

0:40 If you’d said that to me in January, I’d have thought you were crazy. So you look around the country. What do you have? The American people, they didn’t say they’re socialist. They didn’t say they’re left wingers. They said they’re pissed off. And they sent us a signal. that we had failed at a practical, and you know this

1:01 because you’ve been in business your whole life. You know, if your customers aren’t happy with your product, you’d better change your product because you can’t change your customers. And Republicans got arrogant. They got out of touch. And they forgot that money without strategy is a total waste of time and can’t get the job done. They poured an enormous.

1:24 Speaker 3 Amount of money into campaigns with.

1:26 Speaker 2 No messages, no strategy, no solutions. And the average American just shrugged it off and.

1:32 Speaker 3 Said, no, you haven’t convinced me of anything.

1:36 Speaker 2 And I think it poses a really interesting historic moment. Can the Democrats keep themselves under control and seem reasonable long enough to compete for president in 28? Can the Republicans stop and actually learn and find a candidate who is acceptable to the vast majority of Americans and offer solutions, not just attacks. Remember, when we won in 94 for

2:09 the first time in 40 years, the entire campaign was positive.

2:14 Speaker 3 It’s what, here’s what we’re going to do. Here’s what you believe in.

2:17 Speaker 2 So my advice to Trump is find five really big solutions the American people really want. Make them what you talk about.

2:26 Speaker 3 Day after day.

2:27 Speaker 2 And put the pressure on the Democrats in Congress to vote with the American people or to set themselves up for defeat in 28.

2:36 Speaker 1 WABC took a full-page ad in the New York Post today welcoming all Republicans and all Democrats to sit together around the table like you and Bill Clinton did 30 years ago, 35 years ago, and reduced the deficit from $ 5. 5 trillion down to $ 5 trillion. and challenge them to work together versus living like a third world country of who’s

3:01 going to indict more people on either side.

3:05 Speaker 3 I think that’s right.

3:06 Speaker 2 I think that this is a moment to say to the American people and to say to the Democrats, but also to say to the Republicans, your first job is not to figure out how to pick fights. Your first job is to figure out how you can possibly work together to in order to find solutions that will make

3:26 life better for the American people and will make America stronger and more successful.

3:32 Speaker 1 I agree 110%. And if they don’t sit down like common sense individual, then the fault is back on their table.

3:43 Speaker 2 That’s right. And I think the country’s, you know, I wrote this new book, which is a New York Times bestseller called America’s Golden Age. And it’s all positive. It’s all about the next 50 years. It all lays out why it’s going to be better, more successful. And the number one reaction I get from people is they’re just

4:01 glad somebody’s positive.

4:04 Speaker 3 They’re tired of the fighting. They’re tired of the nitpicking.

4:07 Speaker 2 They’re tired of the name calling.

4:08 Speaker 3 And I think if either of the.

4:10 Speaker 2 Two parties can discipline itself to be positive, to offer solutions, and to be willing to sit down and work with the other party, it will have an enormous advantage in appealing to the American people.

4:25 Speaker 1 Now, tell me about, you know, Bruce Blakeman is blaming Elise Stefanik in New York State. J.D. Vance is blaming everybody. You tell us, give us your pulse of the reaction to the loss on Tuesday.

4:45 Speaker 2 Well, let me say, first of all, as I had not heard this, why is Blakeman blaming Elise?

4:51 Speaker 1 Blakeman is blaming Elise because she was an anti-Trumper, in his opinion, and did zero to help any part of the Republican Party.

5:04 Speaker 2 Well, that’s a pity.

5:09 Speaker 1 I think that the fact that President Trump had a fight with Elise Stefanik was the mistake we made in New York State, one of the mistakes we made in New York State, And the mistake that we made in Texas hurt a great deal, too.

5:25 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. Paxton may have been the worst Republican candidate in the country.

5:31 Speaker 3 I mean, you do get to a point.

5:33 Speaker 2 Where you have to say to yourself, can I really in good conscience vote for this person? And I think his opponent will turn out to be very clever and very dangerous. But.... I think this is not about individuals. The Republican Party across the board suffered substantial losses.

5:57 Speaker 3 By the way, it’s only the seventh.

5:59 Speaker 2 Largest defeat since 1938. There were six defeats that were bigger. So it’s not like we’ve never been here before. And of course, in 94, when we led the tidal wave that began the contract with America, We gain far more seats than the Democrats will gain. But I think you do have to take a deep breath. You have to

6:23 say your customers just told you they weren’t happy. Now, I believe, and because you’ve been a much more successful businessman than I have, so you can correct me if I got it wrong.

6:36 Speaker 1 I think you’re more right than wrong most of the time, 99% of the time, because me and you get along fabulously together.

6:43 Speaker 2 No, that’s true.

6:44 Speaker 3 But I’m just saying, John, correct me if you think I’m wrong.

6:47 Speaker 2 The smart business pays attention to its customers. And if its customers are unhappy, it says, gee, what can I do to make you happy? And if it doesn’t learn how to say that, it goes bankrupt. Well, the Republicans need to, and my first reaction was, Republicans need to slow down and think. This was not the result they wanted.

7:09 There’s fundamental things wrong here. And we’ve got to decide, do we have the courage to fix them? Because if we don’t fix them, the American people in 28 are going to vote to kick us out again. If we do fix them, then the burden comes on the Democrats, and they keep themselves under control.

7:27 Speaker 3 And as you know, listening to Bernie Sanders.

7:31 Speaker 2 Today, I mean, he intends to drive as hard as he can to get a very left-wing Congress. That will be a profound mistake for the Democrats, because... If the country’s reminded how cuckoo these people are, by 28, they’re going to be much more willing to vote for Republicans.

7:49 And we’ve seen this before. I mean, you know, I’ve lived through this. You get one party, it’s a big win. Suddenly it thinks it’s perfect. It doesn’t have to pay attention to the American people.

8:01 Speaker 3 It can do anything at once.

8:03 Speaker 2 And the American people, after about six months, start going, that’s not what I voted for. I voted to send a signal about gasoline. I voted to send a signal about the war. I didn’t vote for these nutcake ideas.

8:16 Speaker 1 I agree with you 110%. So where do we go from here? Do you think we have a shot at having all Democrats and Republicans sit together? Have you talked to Bill Clinton at all?

8:28 Speaker 2 No, not this round. I haven’t.

8:30 Speaker 3 I mean, Bill and I obviously would.

8:33 Speaker 2 Be very comfortable sitting. helping organize and get the other group. But it comes down really to Schumer and to Hakeem Jeffries. Are they willing to sit in a room of good faith and try to find solutions? Or are they under such pressure from their big government socialist radical wing that they have to adopt positions that you can’t negotiate over?

8:56 I mean, the key moment, you know, I wasn’t the key to bipartisanship. Clinton was. Because I was willing to be bipartisan. But unless the president was willing to be bipartisan, it couldn’t happen. One of the projects we’re undertaking right now at America’s New Majority Project, which I run, is to look for what are the five biggest solutions the

9:20 American people want and to see whether or not we could get the president and Democrats to agree we’re going to work together on these five big solutions together. We can fight over everything else, but on these five, we’re going to work together. I think if we can come up with, and I’m a big believer in Lincoln, and

9:41 Lincoln said, with popular support, nothing can fail. Without popular sentiment, nothing can succeed.

9:48 Speaker 3 And I believe that.

9:50 Speaker 2 So I think the great effort of Reaganism came from the American people. Contracts with America came from the American people. Donald Trump’s initial emergence was a product of the American people. And I think the time has come, let’s go back to that. And I think, John, you’ve got your finger on it, which is, can we find, let’s agree we’re

10:12 going to fight and yell at each other, but can we find five.

10:16 Speaker 3 Things that are really big It’ll make.

10:20 Speaker 2 A real difference that we can work together on. And that’s the whole basis of why I wrote my new book, America’s Golden Age, because I believe science and technology and entrepreneurship are creating an opportunity for just an amazing future.

10:38 And the politicians ought to try to help it rather than screw it up.

10:43 Speaker 1 Newt Gingrich, thank you. especially today, you know, after the election results on Tuesday. And let’s talk again more often because we’ve got to bring America together.

10:58 Speaker 3 Let’s do it. Thanks, John.