Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., with his actions against ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other activities in the chamber, is "destabilizing the Republican Party," and eventually could cost the party the presidency, political strategist and former presidential adviser Dick Morris tells Newsmax.
"I'm in line with what Newt Gingrich says, which is that Gaetz is a self-serving ambitious guy who did this simply to attract attention and that he's leading basically a group of people who were exercising their power trying to get on the news and destabilizing the Republican Party," Morris said Tuesday on Newsmax's "The Right Squad."
Gingrich, a House speaker from 1995 to 1999, wrote in a Washington Post column Tuesday that the party must expel Gaetz, calling him "actively destructive to the conservative movement."
"Gaetz has gone beyond regular drama," Gingrich wrote. "He is destroying the House GOP's ability to govern and draw a sharp contrast with the policy disasters of the Biden administration."
Morris pointed out that with the election coming up in 2024, the Republican Party is projecting "an image of being totally incapable of governing, and totally incapable of running Congress."
Further, he said the drama is coming without having a real central issue behind the fight.
"Yeah, cutting spending, we'd all like that," said Morris, adding that there are also concerns about the aid to Ukraine, but still he's concerned about following Gaetz's lead.
"I think that by following the lead of people like Gaetz, who I think is an irresponsible demagogue, and not paying attention to people like Gingrich, who I think are proven leaders who have understood us in the past, I think that we're making a big mistake as a party," Morris added.
American Conservative Union leader Matt Schlapp, also on Tuesday night's program, argued that Gingrich, like former Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, was a "failed speaker," and that there is a division in the conference because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell believes that there should not be spending fights because they are lost.
"House conservatives don't believe in that," Schlapp insisted. "They want to toss that old lesson out the window. They want to fight on spending because we're $33 trillion in debt."
"That's fine and really good, but can't you count?" Morris retorted. "How the hell do you expect to lead a body of 435 congressmen with a three or four-vote majority? You've got to give, and you've got to take. To characterize Newt Gingrich's speakership as one of three failed speakers, where were you in the 1990s when [he] initiated the greatest resurgence of conservatives in the country? Purists like you who are saying that we should hold the line on spending, even though [there is] a three-vote margin, you're out of your mind. Welcome to American politics, for God's sake."
Morris said he agrees that "spending is crazy," and that McConnell "caves all the time," but with a slim House majority, "you either are going to have to give and take compromise or chaos… [that] could haunt us through 2024 and cost us the presidency."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.