Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned “crazy left-wing radicals” that many Americans are getting “fed up” with their tactics.
Gingrich appeared Monday night on Fox News and discussed recent incidents of left-wing activists confronting moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., because of their opposition to President Joe Biden’s massive $3.5 trillion social spending bill.
Gingrich said the incidents involving Sinema and Manchin show the “totalitarian left” is “playing with fire.”
“There are a lot more of us than there are of these crazed radicals, and if we ever decide to respond in kind, they’ll be gone,” said Gingrich, noting crowds chanting words against President Joe Biden at college football games and NASCAR races.
“And that’s what you’re seeing is desperation, which I think the rest of the country is beginning to react to. … The average American is fed up with being brow-beaten by a bunch of crazy left-winged radicals.”
Activists on Sunday followed Sinema into a public bathroom and continued to harass her even after she entered and locked a bathroom stall.
Manchin last week was confronted by activists in kayaks who paddled up to his houseboat in Washington, D.C.
“I can’t quite figure out what Manchin is doing because on the one hand, Manchin says the bill has to include the Hyde Amendment,” said Gingrich, citing the law that prevents taxpayer money from paying for abortions. “There’s nobody on the left who’s going to accept that. Nobody.
“In the case of Sinema, she’s shown very tough, very calm, very much being her own person, and very frankly, they can’t pressure her very much.”
Gingrich added that Sinema hails from a state that elected mavericks who included former Sens. Barry Goldwater and John McCain.
Sinema released a statement following the bathroom confrontation.
“It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom,” she said, Newsweek reported.
The former speaker also expressed great concern that foreign powers are taking advantage of Biden.
“With Biden, you have such a week president, I’m very worried that you’re going to see the Chinese Communists decide to occupy Taiwan,” Gingrich said. “The number of planes that have flown over Taiwan from China in the last four days is just astrounding. And it’s a prelude, potentially, to them taking over the island.
“It’s because Biden looks so unbelievably weak.”
