Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is adding his voice to the growing chorus calling for the Republican National Committee to throw in the towel on what’s been a pitiful debate season so far, a move that ensures the GOP would get behind frontrunner Donald Trump in plenty of time.
Gingrich, speaking on Fox News, told Laura Ingraham the GOP dash for the nomination is effectively “over” given the former president’s commanding lead in the polls combined with the lackluster performances demonstrated by his rivals during Wednesday night’s debate.
“It wasn’t that any of them were bad people,” said Gingrich, describing the chaotic debate, “It is that none of them is in the same league as Donald Trump, and none of them is in a position to say with a straight face ‘I can take on the entire national establishment, have them beat me up for eight years, and still be cheerfully out there campaigning.”
“Trump is a phenomenon. He’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” he added.
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Since ascending to the House gavel in 1994, Gingrich has seen generations of Republicans come and go, giving him the vantage point to place Trump in the highest echelons of the GOP’s presidential prospects. Having already won the White House in 2016 and set to take on a badly wounded incumbent in President Joe Biden, Trump has earned the right to cruise out of the GOP’s nominating process and into the general election, Gingrich added.
Asked for his thoughts on moves by some anti-Trump Republicans to draft Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin as a last-ditch attempt to stop Trump, Gingrich said it’s either the Trump train or another four years of the Biden administration.
“Donald Trump will be the nominee. They might as well quit having the various debates because they don’t work, they’re not helping everybody… Trump will be the nominee, and the question for everybody now is: do you want to see Joe Biden reelected, or do you want to help Donald Trump? There’s no middle ground here, I don’t think,” he said.