Gingrich Claims Harris Presidency in 2023 Would Have Been Worse for Democrats
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich asserted on Friday that if Kamala Harris had ascended to the presidency in 2023, the Democratic Party would have faced an even greater electoral disaster in 2024.
In the soon-to-be-released book Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, set for publication on Tuesday, it is revealed that Democratic insiders discreetly considered the possibility of President Joe Biden stepping aside as early as 2023. According to The Guardian, Harris’ team even developed contingency measures in case Biden were to pass away while in office.
During an appearance on Varney & Company, Gingrich contended that Harris would have been such an ineffective president that she could have jeopardized national security. He further suggested that her public image would have deteriorated even more than it had during her short-lived presidential campaign.
“I think it would have made it worse for them because Kamala Harris proved that she doesn’t know anything. She’s lazy, and she’s committed to the hard left,” Gingrich stated. “So if we’d had a year of Kamala Harris actually in office, first of all, the dangers to America around the world would have skyrocketed because nobody would have taken her seriously. And second, the country would have been even more disgusted than it was.”
During her 2020 presidential bid, Harris supported several progressive policies, including a fracking ban, mandatory federal gun buybacks, and the elimination of private health insurance. However, less than ten days after launching her 2024 campaign—following Biden’s July 21 decision to step aside and endorse her—Harris began shifting away from many of these stances.
“You know, she raised I think a billion, 500 million dollars in a 9-week period, outspent Trump by about 3 to 1 and lost because she couldn’t answer anything,” Gingrich remarked. “She couldn’t go on Joe Rogan because she couldn’t possibly talk for three hours. She didn’t know anything. And if we’d had her as president for a year, I think it would have been a terrifying roller coaster.”
Reports indicate that Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, along with the Democratic Party, allocated nearly $1.5 billion toward her election efforts. Despite this, the former vice president suffered defeats in all seven battleground states and lost the popular vote to Donald Trump.
A Reuters report from October 15 detailed that Harris’ campaign had considered an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience to bolster her standing among male voters. However, on his November 8 podcast, Rogan disclosed that the campaign had sought certain topic “restrictions” and inquired about the possibility of editing the interview. Ultimately, these discussions led to the planned appearance being canceled.
Rogan confirmed that while he had agreed to the campaign’s topic conditions, he insisted that the episode would remain unedited.
Meanwhile, former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza predicted on Thursday that President Biden faces a challenging two months ahead. The forthcoming releases of Fight and Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are anticipated to portray Biden and his administration in a negative light.
“Those two books, I feel like, are going to shed a lot of light on how big this cover-up really was. Again, I’ve said repeatedly, I think this is a big scandal,” Cillizza commented. “The fact that the Biden inner circle clearly knew he was diminished, they kept him from the media, they insisted to the media he was fine even while knowing he was not, what happened at the debate.”
He continued, saying, “My sense is [Fight] is going to have a lot in it that is not great for Biden.”
As for the Tapper-Thompson book, Cillizza stated, “That [book] is aimed at really providing an autopsy of how Biden got to the point he got, given his age and obvious erosion of his capabilities. Those two books, I feel like, are going to shed a lot of light on how big this cover-up really was,” reiterating, “Again, I’ve said repeatedly, I think this is a big scandal. The fact that the Biden inner circle clearly knew he was diminished, they kept him from the media, they insisted to the media he was fine even while knowing he was not, what happened at the debate.”