Newt Gingrich Quotes (41 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Newt Gingrich: 41 quotes2 likes

Famous Newt Gingrich Quotes

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”

“If this just degenerates after a historic election, back into the usual bologna of politics in Washington and pettiness in Washington, then the American people I believe will move towards a third party in a massive way.”

Newt Gingrich

In appearance on CBS News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImvI-G5gA9g (11 November 1994) <br class="br">1990s

“Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact. And, frank— for that matter, if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that these secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they're the opposite, of what you're taught in Sunday school.”

Newt Gingrich

2008-11-15
The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News
2008-11-17
Gingrich: "<nowiki>[T]</nowiki>here is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200811170014
2011-03-30
discussing protesters against a California ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage
2000s

“The president of the United States, the most radical president in American history, has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people. He has said, "I run a machine, I own Washington, and there's nothing you can do about it."”

Newt Gingrich

Now, that's where we are.
Coverage of Southern Republican Leadership Conference, CSPAN, 2010-04-08
2010-04-09
Gingrich: Obama is "the most radical president in American history"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201004090011
2011-03-30
2010s

“We have to frankly break the back of the secular-socialist machine, elect people committed to representing the American people, and then methodically rip the system apart.”

Newt Gingrich

The Mark Levin Show
ABC Radio Networks
2010-06-24
Gingrich: We have to "break the back of the secular socialist machine … and then methodically rip the system apart"
2010-05-25
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201006250048
2011-03-30
2010s

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]? That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

Newt Gingrich

"What Was Newt Gingrich Talking About?" http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2010/09/12/what_was_newt_gingrich_talking_about.html <br class="br">2010s

Newt Gingrich Quotes about people

“The goal that the Obama team has is to fundamentally replace the historic America of self-reliance, independence, the work ethic, the people who go out and achieve because they spend their lifetime doing the right things. And they want to replace it with a politician-dominated redistributionist bureaucracy. Which in the essence would mean the end of America as it has been for the last 400 years.”

Newt Gingrich

The Glenn Beck Program
Premiere Radio Networks
2010-05-17
2010-05-17
On Beck's radio show, Gingrich says Obama admin. is trying to "end … America as it has been for the last 400 years"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005170030
2011-03-30
2010s

“People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz. I see evil around me every day.”

Newt Gingrich

1994
January
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, quoted in [2011-10-19, NewtWit!, Tom, Connor, Doubleday, 9780307804792, http://books.google.com/books?id=wosfsJKIBuUC&pg=PT8]
1990s

“I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing.”

Newt Gingrich

2010-12-19
Newt Gingrich, serious this time, mulls a bid for president
Los Angeles Times
0458-3035
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/19/nation/la-na-gingrich-20101220/2
2011-03-30
on unemployment benefits
2010s

“There's no question that at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them. I found that I felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there's a forgiving God. Somebody once said that when we're young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy.”

Newt Gingrich

2011-03-09 interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, quoted in * 2011-03-09
Gingrich: Past Adultery 'Partially Driven By How Passionately I Felt About This Country' (Video)
Eric
Kleefeld
Talking Points Memo
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/gingrich-past-adultery-partially-driven-by-how-passionately-i-felt-about-this-country-video.php
2011-03-31
2010s

“Alan Colmes: You're calling "appeasers" people who disagree with the Bush policy administration —
Gingrich: Look—
Colmes: — comparing them to those who enabled Hitler?
Gingrich: Yes.
Colmes: That's an astounding comment —
Gingrich: What's your — what's your — why? Why is it astounding?
Colmes: — that's a very insulting comment —
Gingrich: It's not an insulting comment.”

Newt Gingrich

Hannity & Colmes
Fox News
2006-09-01
2006-09-05
Gingrich: "It's not an insult" to compare Bush administration critics "to those who enabled Hitler"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/research/200609050002
2011-03-30
2000s

“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community.”

Newt Gingrich

"Palestinians are an invented people, says Newt Gingrich" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/10/palestinians-invented-people-newt-gingrich <br class="br">2010s

Newt Gingrich Quotes about thinking

“I assume that somewhere after he attacked Arizona; engaged in what I think was a racist dialogue to try to frighten Latinos away from the Republican Party; stood next to the president of Mexico and said, "Borders don't matter because we have strong bonds"; had the President of Mexico get a standing ovation from Democrats for attacking an American state, and has his own State Department apologize to the Chinese for the Arizona law.”

Newt Gingrich

On the Record
Fox News
2010-05-26
Gingrich: Obama "engaged" in "racist dialogue to try to frighten Latinos away from the Republican Party"
2010-05-26
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201005260081
2011-03-30
2010s

“Matt Lauer: Do you think Muammar Gaddafi has to go as a result of this military intervention?
Gingrich: I think that now — let me draw a distinction. I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Gaddafi. I think there are a lot of allies in the region that we could have worked with. I would not have used American and European forces, bombing Arab and that country.”

Newt Gingrich

Today Show
NBC
2011-03-23
2010s

“I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors.”

Newt Gingrich

2011-05-15 interview on * Meet the Press
2011-05-15
NBC, quoted in * Gingrich Calls GOP Budget 'Right Wing Social Engineering'
PBS
2011-05-16
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/05/gingrich-keeps-ryan-budget-at-arms-length.html
2011-05-28
2010s

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true. In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve … He was authentically dishonest.”

Newt Gingrich

2010-09-11
Gingrich: Obama’s ‘Kenyan, anti-colonial’ worldview
Robert
Costa
National Review
0028-0038
2010s

“I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much.”

Newt Gingrich

1995-10-09
The Politics of Perception
Connie
Bruck
The New Yorker
0028-792X
71
31
51
paragraph 1
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/10/09/1995_10_09_050_TNY_CARDS_000374071
1990s

“But I think all of us would also agree that there's a very central part of your faith in how you approach public life. And I, frankly, would be really worried if somebody assured me that nothing in their faith would affect their judgments, because then I'd wonder, where's your judgment — how can you have judgment if you have no faith? And how can I trust you with power if you don't pray? Who you pray to, how you pray, how you come close to God is between you and God. But the notion that you're endowed by your creator sets a certain boundary on what we mean by America.”

Newt Gingrich

Republican debate http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/last-nights-gop-debate-transcript.html 2011-10-18 <br class="br">2010s

Newt Gingrich Quotes

“So let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood.”

Newt Gingrich

2010s
Context: I want to make sure every House Republican is protected from some kind of dishonest Democratic ad. So let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood. Because I have said publicly those words were inaccurate and unfortunate and I'm prepared to stand up and — When I make a mistake — and I'm going to on occasion — I want to share with the American people "that was a mistake" because that way we can have an honest conversation.

“Greta Van Susteren: What would you do about Libya?
Gingrich: Exercise a no-fly zone this evening, communicate to the Libyan military that Gaddafi was gone and that the sooner they switch sides, the more likely they were to survive, provided help to the rebels to replace him. I mean, the idea that we're confused about a man who has been an anti-American dictator since 1969 just tells you how inept this administration is. They were very quick to jump on Mubarak, who was their ally for 30 years, and they were confused about getting rid of Gaddafi. This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.”

Newt Gingrich

On the Record
Fox News
2011-03-07
2010s

“It is impossible to maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, with 15-year-olds killing each other, with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can’t even read.”

Newt Gingrich

Source: As quoted in Newsweek, ‘Spiro Agnew With Brains’ http://archive.is/QsR1g, (27 November 1994)

“I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”

Newt Gingrich

2011-03-27, quoted in * Kendra
Marr
Newt Gingrich talks faith — not affairs — at Cornerstone Church in Texas
Politico
2011-03-27
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52023.html
2011-03-30
2010s

“Give the park police more ammo.”

Newt Gingrich

[2011-03-31, Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation, James D., Wright, Amy M., Donley, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswich, 9781412842211, 2010043864, 290, http://books.google.com/books?id=NiRKy5I5xhEC&pg=PA290]
asked what should be done about homelessness
2010s

“This is, by the way, the great— one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration. The more successful they've been at intercepting and stopping bad guys, the less proof there is that we're in danger, and therefore, the better they've done at making sure there isn't an attack, the easier it is to say "well, there was never gonna be an attack anyway". And it's almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us.”

Newt Gingrich

Huntington, NY book tour televised on Book TV (CSPAN2), 2008-04-29

2000s

“The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.”

Newt Gingrich

1989
October
The Real Ethics Debate
D. B.
Mother Jones
0362-8841
31
http://books.google.com/books?id=EecDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30
1980s

“I believe the kids could mop the floor and clean up the bathroom and get paid for it and it would be OK.”

Newt Gingrich

Iowa fundraiser dinner, quoted in * 2011-12-01
Newt Gingrich expands on his support for child labor
Paul
West
Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/01/nation/la-na-1202-gingrich-child-labor-20111202
suggesting poor children be given paid jobs in the schools they attend
2010s

“I want to say to the elite of this country—the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you in Littleton and I accuse you in Kosovo of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don't have the courage to look at the world you have created.”

Newt Gingrich

1999-05-12
Gingrich blasts administration, media and Hollywood on Kosovo and Littleton
Karla
Crosswhite-Chigbue
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/12/gingrich/
regarding the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and Kosovo War
1990s

“If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days because they get infections and they don't have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn't matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis-class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets, a female may be again dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes.”

Newt Gingrich

Address, "Renewing American Civilization," Reinhardt College (7 January 1995)
1990s

“If you import a commercial quantity of illegal drugs, it is because you have made the personal decision that you are prepared to get rich by destroying our children. I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this.”

Newt Gingrich

1995-08-27
Gingrich Suggests Tough Drug Measure
New York Times
0362-4331
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/27/us/gingrich-suggests-tough-drug-measure.html
2011-12-12
Former Marijuana User Newt Gingrich Proposed the Death Penalty for Trafficking Marijuana in 1996
Paul
Constant
The Stranger
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/12/12/former-marijuana-user-newt-gingrich-proposed-the-death-penalty-for-trafficking-marijuana-in-1996
regarding his "Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996" (H.R. 4170) bill
1990s

“I'm not studying this, I'm not looking at it in great detail, but the last guy to announce on your show came in fourth.”

Newt Gingrich

Response to Jon Stewart's request that he announce his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2008 election on The Daily Show (6 June 2005)
2000s

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of "I do this and you give me cash", unless it's illegal.”

Newt Gingrich

2010s

“You want to be a country that creates food stamps? In which case, frankly, Obama is an enormous success — the most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates jobs?”

Newt Gingrich

2011-05-13 speech to Georgia Republican convention, quoted in * Meet the Press
NBC
Television
2011-05-15
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/43038280
2011-05-19
2010s

“The left-wing Democrats will represent the party of total hedonism, total exhibitionism, total bizarreness, total weirdness, and the total right to cripple innocent people in the name of letting hooligans loose.”

Newt Gingrich

1989-07-27
John
Harwood
Newt Gingrich: GOP's Bare-Knuckles Battler
St. Petersburg Times
1A, quoted in [2002-03-05, Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-conservative, David, Brock, Crown, 1st, 66-67, 9780812930993]; [2010, Stuck in the Sixties: Conservatives and Legacies of the 1960s, George, Rising, Xlibris, 9781456804848, 2010916124, 130, http://books.google.com/books?id=tnhQ_MJCTtQC&pg=PA130]
1980s

“I have enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet. And I’m doing it. I am now a famous person. I represent real power.”

Newt Gingrich

Interview with WASHINGTON POST, January 3, 1985.
1980s

“He’s bright as hell, but I disagree with him.”

Newt Gingrich

Joe Biden; * https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/joe-biden-newt-gingrich-vp-vice-president-225062
Biden to Gingrich: 'Gonna do it?'
Politico
Kristen
East
July 2, 2016.

“By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American.”

Newt Gingrich

https://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/newt-pledges-moon-base-by-second-term-112319
Newt pledges moon base by second term
Alexander
Burns
Politico
January 25, 2012.; * https://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2012/jan/25/newt-gingrich-moon-base
Newt Gingrich promises moon base by the end of his second term
Stuart
Miller
The Guardian
January 25, 2012.
2010s

“I'm willing to lead, but I'm not willing to preside over people who are cannibals.”

Newt Gingrich

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/us/the-speaker-steps-down-excerpts-from-phone-call-about-gingrich-s-future.html
THE SPEAKER STEPS DOWN; Excerpts From Phone Call About Gingrich's Future
The New York Times
Associated Press
November 8, 1998.
1990s

“I'm the guy in the eighth grade who did not go across the floor and ask the girl to dance for two reasons. One is, she might say no and I'd be embarrassed; two, she might say yes and I'd have to dance…”

Newt Gingrich

1980s

“I see myself as representing the conservative wing of the postindustrial society.”

Newt Gingrich

1980s

“The number one fact about the news media is they love fights. When you give them confrontations, you get attention; when you get attention, you can educate.”

Newt Gingrich

1980s

“I think that one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the camp fire, but are lousy in politics.”

Newt Gingrich

1970s, Address to College Republicans, June 24, 1978