Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Fox News Wednesday why he thinks Elon Musk distancing himself from the Democratic Party should serve as an alarm for the nation.
During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Gingrich said Musk’s disillusionment with the party marks a critical juncture in American politics, especially during the tumultuous last two years of the Biden administration. Gingrich said that the Democratic Party’s current trajectory is a “dead-end” for the country.
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“I think it’s for a good reason. The Democrats went nuts, and Elon has been pretty open about this. When you look at their policies, you look at their values. They are a dead end for America,” Gingrich said. “I think he genuinely came to believe in the last two years of the Biden administration that they were so crazy. They were so out of control that you really had to do something very dramatic to get control of the government.”
Reflecting on public sentiment, Gingrich cited a recent poll by America’s New Majority Project, which says that 82% of Americans perceive Washington as corrupt.
“It’s going to be challenging, but on the other hand 82% of the American people think that Washington is corrupt. Think about that. You know, eight out of every 10 Americans, according to an America’s New Majority Project poll, eight out of 10 think their government is corrupt,” Gingrich said.
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Amid these concerns, Gingrich also commented on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to block efforts to keep the government running.
“And you can’t survive as a free society. If you have a government which is so despised by your own people. And that’s why I think what Schumer announced today that he’s going to not help keep the government open,” Gingrich said. “He’s going to stand and fight. He’s on the wrong side of history, and the American people know it. The American people want this government to be smaller. The American people want something like DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency].”
Schumer said that Senate Democrats will not provide the necessary votes to approve the funding agreement passed by the House, raising the likelihood of a government shutdown by week’s end. Without garnering some Democratic backing for a deal, the government faces a shutdown when Friday ends.
Gingrich talked about widespread government spending, which he admits was worse than he previously thought.
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“Every time Elon releases another set of really stupid spending, I think people look around and go, ‘Wow, you know, they kind of knew it was bad, but even as much as I’ve studied the government, I didn’t know it was this sick and had this many things that are totally indefensible,’” Gingrich said.
Musk said DOGE is successfully identifying $1 trillion in wasted funds. DOGE was established by President Donald Trump through an executive order on Jan. 20, after he appointed Musk as chairman in November.
Musk criticized the Democratic Party as being dominated by unions and trial lawyers. Meanwhile, liberal media figures and Democratic legislators have raised alarms about Musk’s commitment to promoting free speech on Twitter, now called X, during his $44.3 billion acquisition, with MSNBC host Joy Reid accusing him on a segment of “The ReidOut” of longing for the apartheid era of the 1980s South Africa.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
