Gingrich: Trump ‘Is the Worst Nightmare’ for the GOP Establishment

HANNITY: “Here with reaction, author of the new — brand new book called ‘Duplicity,’ former speaker of the House, FOX News contributor, Newt Gingrich. There were five to six polls this week that had Trump in the lead. The only one that he might not be happy with — oh, my thing went bad — the only one that he might not be happy with is the Iowa poll but every other one has him extending his lead. How do you examine this?”
GINGRICH: “Well I — first of all, I think there is a lot of momentum for Trump right now. And I think the more people watch him the more they begin to think he’s real, that he’s not just a flash in the pan or what have you. But I also think that — and I know you’re close to him and you know him well, he is really going to have to confront the reality. This is rough and tumble stuff. This is like the Super Bowl. We’re not playing chess or checkers here. And, for example, Dr. Carson has a tremendous following among evangelicals who are a very big part of the Iowa base. So he’s going to be in a real struggle with Carson in Iowa. I think presently my prediction is you’re going for see a bunch of establishment super PACs all of them pile on Trump and start running and attacking Trump because they’ve got to be terrified. Trump right now is the worst nightmare you can imagine if you’re a traditional establishment Republican. He’s uncontrollable. He’s unpredictable. The party has been divided at least since Reagan and Kemp and I were involved in the ‘70s between a creative wing of the party and a control wing of the party. And the control wing doesn’t like ideas very much, and it likes everything to be slow and small and a handful of people run it. The creative wing accepts a pretty high level of chaos and confusion because it believes it is part of a mass movement of millions and millions of people. Trump and Carson, and to some extent, frankly, Cruz and Fiorina all represent this creative wing that’s in an insurgency against the control wing, which has, frankly, failed to get the job done.”
HANNITY: “And that’s 60 percent of Republican primary voters. And when you look at aggregate of the polls together, it also represents 60 percent that feel betrayed by the Republican Party. Now, let me go back to Iowa. You are right, there is a pretty high evangelical turnout. Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum were the two latest winners in that state, maybe not the best natural constituency for Trump.”
GINGRICH: “Maybe not. But, look, this is like if you’re going to be the frontrunner you have got to learn to be the frontrunner. He can put a base together. He did put a base together in Iowa that was very formidable. He has to go into Iowa at a retail level, do a series of town hall meetings, answer questions. He draws huge crowds, as you know. But I think he and Carson could crowd out virtually everybody else because the sheer amount of media coverage they would get between them is so enormous. And that’s a real problem. I have very great friends running who I respect very much, and they are having a real hard time getting into the game because it is so dominated by Trump and Carson.”
HANNITY: “Yes, the establishment, and you referred to this earlier, too. Byron York had an interesting piece out this week. They’re already preparing to dump millions and millions of dollars — apparently they now believe after months and months and months of Trump leading in the polls, they finally believe he can win. Nice of them to finally wake up to that reality. And so they’re planning on negative campaign ads in the early primary states, caucus states, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. What should Trump’s response be? And do they risk a backfiring in this?”
GINGRICH: “I think they do risk backfiring. Look, as you know, there’s more than enough stuff in Trump’s career that you can put up all sorts of stuff. He was a businessman in New York City. He didn’t have policies. He had opinions. He shot his mouth off all the time. So you can go back and mine Donald Trump’s material over the past 30 years and you have got a ton of stuff. What he’s got to say is, look, this is what ill a he do in the future.  This is who I am now, and all that other stuff is junk. What he shouldn’t get involved in fighting over that stuff. If they can suck him in to fighting over his past, he will shrink dramatically. But if he can rise above it and say I understand all these consultants have to spend all this money and that’s how they earn a living and they’re only going to negative and mean-spirited. That’s OK. Here’s what I want to do to make America great again. If he can say disciplined and stay focused, he’ll survive it and it actually will probably backfire.”
HANNITY: “Historically negative campaigning works. As soon as that first attack ad goes up, should he respond in kind with his own ads?”
GINGRICH: “He can’t respond in kind because it won’t come from anybody. It’s going to come from a super PAC that has a lot of money. Now, I did notice that a close friend of his who’s quite successful just announced he’s putting $150 million in to start a super PAC in favor of Trump. So you can have a real running brawl by the spring. But, look, I’m different than almost every Republican. Republicans like the world to be tidy and neat and organized. I think it is terrific to have this fight inside the party before we get to the general election.  I think the strongest candidate ought to get nominated. If that turns out to be Trump, he is going to be able to take Hillary on from a position of strength. Anybody else who stumbles through this, but it is going to be an immense amount of money spent, because this is real. Trump and Carson and Cruz and Fiorina are uncontrollable by the traditional establishment, and that terrifies them.”
HANNITY: “I agree with you. I actually think it is healthy in the end, all of what you described.”