Voters delivered their verdict this week on a Democratic president who has combined radicalism and incompetence to disastrous consequences, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told
Newsmax TV on Friday.
"President Obama is both radical and incompetent, and the combination is pretty devastating on the country," Gingrich told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
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And based on his post-election remarks on immigration, Obama may still be convinced of his rightness, Gingrich said, even after an electoral drubbing on Tuesday that will hand total control of Congress to Republicans in January.
Gingrich, who presided over an electoral earthquake in 1994 that gave the U.S. House a historic Republican majority, said the president must choose.
"He can pretend the election didn't occur," said Gingrich.
Or he can respect the judgement Americans delivered, according to Gingrich, especially if he is considering wielding executive authority to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants before the new Congress starts — a position that Republican leaders have likened to "poisoning the well."
The president sounded conciliatory in a press conference on Wednesday, saying he would look for common ground with newly empowered Republicans.
Gingrich was skeptical.
"Why would you believe anything he says?" Gingrich said of Obama, adding, "There are no words from Barack Obama to convince me of anything."
Gingrich said voters not only rejected Obama, they endorsed how Republicans — especially in the states — govern and make policy
He said that Republicans in Congress and elsewhere are going "make mistakes" here and there because it's unavoidable, but they will hopefully be smaller, manageable errors than those that have hurt Obama.
Gingrich also said that in GOP-led states "real changes" and "real breakthroughs" are happening.
"You see criminal justice reform in state after state, with places like Texas, South Carolina and Georgia," said Gingrich. "You see real effort and new approaches to helping the poor in places like Ohio. You see reforms of [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker, who's really changed the relationship with public employee unions."
Gingrich, author of
"Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past, and the Epic Battle That Will Decide America's Fate," said that success in states is also helping his party field a strong set of presidential contenders in 2016.
"It's a wide open race," said Gingrich, who competed for the nomination in 2012. "We have no front runners, but we have tons of runners, and they're going to be great candidates.
"I suspect a governor will win, but Rand Paul is a serious candidate, Marco Rubio is a serious candidate, [and] Ted Cruz," he said, naming three U.S. senators.
His list of current and former governors consisted of Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Perry in Texas, Jeb Bush of Florida and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.
"It's going to be wild field," said Gingrich.
He said that the Democratic field is more predictable, led by Obama's former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who Gingrich said amounts to a continuation of the current administration.
"She is the Obama candidate of 2016," Gingrich said of Clinton.
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