Longtime Republican strategist, former House Speaker, and Donald Trump’s talking head Newt Gingrich decided it would be a good idea to go onto ABC’s The View and defend POTUS. He thought he could explain away Trump’s outrageous comments about torch-carrying neo-Nazis who marched through the Charlottesville, Virginia night chanting “Jews! Will not replace us!” and “Blood and soil!” Was he ever wrong.
Gingrich started off unaware that he was no match for the show’s female hosts. He came days after the Chabad at Poway mass shooting and said:
‘There’s this myth on the left that’s not true. If you go back and look at what Trump said, Trump says clearly that he was opposed to white supremacists, that he’s opposed to Klansmen, that he’s opposed to Nazis. He says it clearly.’
Host Joy Behar agreed with host Sunny Hostin, who continued:
‘It’s not that clear. It’s not. I have what he said right here. His first statement he said that “there was violence on many sides.” Two days later, after all the backlash, is the first time he mentioned the KKK and neo-Nazis. And then the following day he still said, Newt, “you had some very bad people in that group, you also had some very fine people on both sides.”‘
Gingrich tried to weasel word the show’s hosts:
‘If by “both sides” — look, this is an interesting topic.’
Then, Hostin went after Gingrich:
‘The statement is very interesting.’
Gingrich tried to escape with this:
‘Are we going to say if you are somebody who thought Robert E. Lee was a decent person, which by the way would be a high percentage of white Virginians.’
Behar hit him first:
‘Wasn’t he a traitor to the country.’
Hostin went next:
‘And a slave holder? And a horrible person?’
Gingrich tried again:
‘Now you’re going to say everybody in the South who thinks that anybody was a reasonable person was, you know.’
Then, Host Whoopi Goldberg came in:
‘If you’re going to march with these folks, if you’re in the picture with them, it looks like you’re part of the problem. Even if you say they were good people, you have to understand that’s not what people see.’
Goldberg continued:
‘You figure if you’re a good person and you’re marching for the monument, you’re not going to let people say, “well, you know, we’re not going to let Jews take over our lives,” and “no more Jews,” and “no more blacks” and all of that stuff.’
Gingrich was unable to make his point that the anti-fascist protesters were equally as bad as the neo-Nazis, but to no avail. Goldberg continued:
‘That’s not what we’re talking about, let’s stick with Charlottesville.’
Then, Gingrich brought up the point that Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump had converted to Judaism when she married Jared Kushner. Hostin hit back:
‘No one said that. What we said, Speaker Gingrich, is that he said “you had some very bad people in that group. You also had some very fine people on both sides.” The suggestion somehow that he did not say that is intellectually dishonest.’
Goldberg added:
‘If you are marching with people wearing signs that say “Down with Jews, Jews are not going to take over our lives.” And you don’t step away because that’s not how you feel, you’re going to lumped into that group.’
Watch the video below:
Newt Gingrich clashes with #TheView over Trump’s Charlottesville “both sides” remark.
Newt: Trump “clearly” said he was opposed to those groups.
Joy and Sunny: “It’s not that clear.”https://t.co/0UkB9Nc2sK
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 29, 2019
