‘Suicidally Stupid’: Newt Gingrich Rages Against House Republicans Who Initially Did Not Vote For Johnson

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) joined Fox News on Friday as the House vote to elect a speaker was underway and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fell short of his keeping his job on the first ballot.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) had long vowed to vote against Johnson and was joined by Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Keith Self (R-TX) who also voted for Republicans other than Johnson. Johnson could only afford to lose one Republican member and still win the vote — if all members voted for the same candidate. Norman and Self later changed their votes to Johnson, reflecting him as speaker.

Gingrich was asked to weigh in on the vote and pulled no punches in slamming the House GOP members who tanked Johnson, “They’re contrarians. And you can’t have a contrarian caucus with a very, very narrow margin.”

“You were kind about my speakership, but I had a much bigger majority. And we had a country which was decisive. Now, the question I’d ask about Norman and Massie, so what’s part two? Well, other than helping Hakeem Jeffries and hurting Donald Trump, what do you think you’re accomplishing?” Gingrich continued, adding:

Because I don’t see what the second act is. And they might feel good and get some media — be able to raise some money, but they’re doing it at the cost of the country. The country gave a mandate not to Massie. Didn’t give a mandate to anybody else except Donald Trump.

And I think for them to undermine this on the opening day is almost suicidally stupid. And I can’t explain it except that over the years and Karl watched all this and lived with it in the Bush White House over the years has been a group in the party who have grown more and more hostile, more and more self-righteous. Dave Winston just wrote a great piece today about the history.

I lasted four years, and even though we balanced the budget, reformed welfare, cut taxes, by the end of it, there was a hardcore group of 18. They were just tired. John Boehner won a huge majority, bigger than I did. And after a while they got tired. Paul Ryan got so disgusted, he left. You know, the guy who actually created the current majority, Kevin McCarthy, was in a constant running war with about 8 or 10 members. And this small group has congealed into a very hostile, very destructive group. Fine, if you’re the opposition party, but astonishingly stupid if you’re the governing party.

And somehow Trump and others, JD Vance may have a big job cut out from here. They’ve got to sit these guys down and explain to them. And if that means that Trump goes and holds rallies in every one of their districts and mounts a tremendous effort to replace them, whatever it takes. You cannot have a hostile, contrarian negative group if you’re going to try to govern.

Later in the segment Gingrich again railed against the defectors, “Look, I use this language very deliberately. These people are insanely destructive. What is around 2 going to be? One guy gets 186 votes right now, another guy gets three — three people get one each? So what is around 2 going to be like? The same three guys are going to hold out and they are going to hold out forever?” He concluded:

It is certainly a constitutional right, they are independent the elected, but let’s be clear, this is a stunningly stupid, suicidal strategy, which only weakens the Republican party, weakens president trump, makes it harder to fix America, and these guys need psychologists. I don’t know what they think they are accomplishing in the real world except to make a spectacle out of this thing. Now I hope that at least two of them will switch. I think Massie is probably utterly, totally hopeless.

He is sufficiently certain of his moral rights and his brilliant insights. I don’t think he will move under any circumstances. But I would hope the other two realized they are going to look like idiots. It is not going to change. The party is not going to go oh, gee, 214 of us were right — 215 of us were right, but you three, you have convinced us on the second ballot, let’s do something else. I have been at this business, as you know, a long time. Really, literally, as self-destructive as I have ever seen a political party be, and it is down to a handful of people. Everyone else’s trying to get it to work. Everyone. Moderate, conservative, freedom caucus, you name it, they are all trying to get it to work except for a very tiny handful.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.