Newt Gingrich: Trump May Lose If States ‘Shut Down Again’ And ‘Economy Goes Back in the Tank’
President Donald Trump is likely to lose reelection if states close again in response to the coronavirus pandemic, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in an interview.
“I think the jury’s out,” Gingrich said, speaking in reference to Trump’s decision to hold rallies and other public events. “If Trump is right and we can reopen safely with reasonable precautions, he’ll probably get reelected. If Trump is wrong and as a result, states have to shut down again and the economy goes back in the tank, then he probably won’t get reelected, no matter what the consequence is, because at that point, people will say, ‘Well, that didn’t work.’”
Gingrich added in the interview published Friday by Just the News that former Vice President Joe Biden’s strategy of staying out of the limelight — derided by Republicans as “hiding” — was a winning one. “For some people, they prefer safety to risk taking, and it’s very clear that Trump is a risk taker, and it’s very clear that between the virus and the economy and the Chinese … we have a lot of risk out there right now. So it’s conceivable that Biden, by hiding, looks passive, and looks non-threatening and that may be reassuring to people, they may say, ‘Oh, wow, you know, Biden would never do any of these things.’ Now, it’s also true that Biden probably wouldn’t do anything.”
Despite a surging number of coronavirus cases in Florida, including a record number of new cases set on Thursday, Republicans are planning to hold the bulk of their national convention in Jacksonville from Aug 24-27, even as polling suggests a majority of Jacksonville residents oppose the move. Democrats are planning to hold the bulk of their convention “virtually” from Aug. 17-20.
Early battle lines have been drawn by the president’s decision to hold campaign rallies — including one in Tulsa last weekend — and Biden’s decision to forgo most public events.
Gingrich said on Fox News earlier this week that Biden’s strategy might be a winning one. “I think the longer they can keep Biden in the basement, the better off they are,” Gingrich said. “Every time he comes out of the basement like yesterday in Pennsylvania, he said that 120 million Americans had died from COVID, which is insane. Last week, he said he was running for the U.S. Senate. I think he has a fairly limited grip of things, and I think the more that they can hide him, the better.”
