Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, President Donald Trump’s ally who in the 1990s presided over one of the longest government shutdowns in US history, said Wednesday that Trump should stop negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and instead ramp up the pressure on rank-and-file Democrats.
Gingrich said he would advise Trump to hold political rallies in Democratic districts where the President performed well in 2016, with the goal of winning just enough Democratic support to break the current impasse.
“My advice would be: Why don’t you schedule three rallies in three Democratic districts and have people show up — see how Democrats feel about that kind of direct pressure?” Gingrich told CNN in a phone interview Wednesday. “He ought to start planning right now. Reaching out to individual Democrats and ignoring Pelosi and Schumer.”
The partial government shutdown stretched into its 26th day on Wednesday. The previous record was a 21-day shutdown in 1995, when Gingrich was House speaker and Bill Clinton was President and Clinton and the Republican Congress clashed over the federal budget.
Public opinion polling at the time found Americans overwhelmingly blamed congressional Republicans for the shutdown. The impasse eventually ended with an agreement to balance the budget in seven years.
Gingrich was seen as being on the losing end of that political battle, and the shutdown one of the low points of his speakership. Some historians point to the moment as a turning point for politics in Washington, ushering in a new era of partisan brinksmanship.
Asked when he believed a new threshold would be reached when it comes to the length of the shutdown, Gingrich responded, “Late February.”
“A lot of it depends on (Transportation Security Administration). If the airports collapse, the pressure will grow,” Gingrich said. “People have to get exhausted enough. You’ll start to see individual Democrats say, ‘I can vote for a wall.'”
CNN has reported on long lines, staffing shortages and delays cropping up at airports around the country.
But Gingrich himself did not go as far as to say Trump should continue to dig in his heels on getting a physical wall at the southern border in exchange for opening up the government. When asked whether the wall was a worthwhile goal for the President, Gingrich said, “Control over southern border is worth it.”
“Trump wants something very simple. He thinks the southern border really matters,” he added. “He’s determined to break through and protect the American people. He just needs to make that claim over and over again.”
Gingrich also rejected the notion that Trump — who said in December he would be “proud” to take responsibility for shutting down the government over the border wall — is largely responsible for the ongoing shutdown.
“The narrative in the media, which hates Trump, is that this is the Trump shutdown,” Gingrich said.
