The Daily Signal - Gingrich Calls on Conservatives to Focus on 'Black Success,' Not 'White Guilt'

Episode Date: July 2, 2020

How will historians look back at 2020? "I think it's a decisive moment and I don't think we know yet how it's going to work out," says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "Once you start tearing down statues, somebody hates the next statue, the statue after that," adds Gingrich, author of "Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of Our Time." "And then you end up with a statue that was built by freed slaves as a tribute to the man who freed them, Abraham Lincoln, is now inadequate, according to people who don't have a clue what the Civil War was like, what Lincoln did, or how gigantic the change was. So you basically have barbarians." We also cover these stories:  Seattle police are disbanding the CHOP zone. President Trump tweets about the New York Times article that Russia is paying bounties for dead Americans in Afghanistan. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks out against China's new crackdown on Hong Kong. “The Daily Signal Podcast” is available on Ricochet, Apple Podcasts, Pippa, Google Play, and Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, July 2nd. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Kate Trinco. Today we speak to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about statue toppling, the Supreme Court, the rise of the extreme left, and much more. Don't forget. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. The police have taken back Seattle's Autonomous Zone.

known as CHOP. On Wednesday, Mayor Jenny Durkin issued an executive order calling on all protesters to vacate the area that has been occupied for several weeks by demonstrators protesting police brutality and racism. Violence broke out multiple times in the declared police-free zone, including four shootings resulting in the death of two teenagers. On Wednesday morning, police moved into the zone and began clearing barricades and arresting protesters who refused to. to leave. The Seattle Police Department posted on Twitter on Wednesday, quote, as of 9.25 a.m., officers have made a total of 31 arrests for failure to disperse, obstruction, assault, and unlawful weapon possession. Police continue to provide perimeter security for city crews offering

services and performing environmental cleanup. Speaking to the press on Wednesday morning, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Beth explained the police department's response. to Durkan's executive order per King 5. Our job is to protect and to serve the community. Our job is to support peaceful demonstrations. But what has happened here on these streets over the last two weeks, few weeks that is, is lawless and it's brutal. And bottom line, it is simply unacceptable.

I will continue to work with our community police commission, our Office of Police Accountability, and our Office of Inspector General, and all of our community partners and city leaders to encourage peace and move forward with how to re-envision public safety in our city. President Trump continues to dismiss the New York Times article that claimed Russia was paying bounties for dead Americans in Afghanistan. Trump tweeted, The Russia bounty story is just another made up.

by fake news tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party. The secret source probably does not even exist, just like the story itself. If the discredited New York Times has a source, reveal it. Just another hoax. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the words, Black Lives Matter, will be painted on the street in front of Trump Tower in New York City. It's an important message to the whole nation, and obviously, we want the president to hear it because he's never shown respect for those three words, de Blasio said on MSNBC on Wednesday. In response, Trump tweeted,

NYC is cutting police budgets by $1 billion. And yet the at-NyC mayor is going to paint a big, expensive yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury avenue. This will further antagonize New York's finest who love New York. York and vividly remember the horrible BLM chant, pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon. Maybe our great police who have been neutralized and scorned by a mayor who hates and disrespects them won't let this symbol of hate be affixed to New York's greatest street. Spend this money fighting crime instead.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized China in new remarks, saying that the nation had violated its agreement on how Hong Kong would be governed with the new law and crackdowns via CNN. The enactment and imposition of this national security law constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law. The law also threatens the freedoms and rights protected. by the joint declaration. We made clear, Mr. Speaker, that if China continued down this path, we would introduce a new route for those with British national overseas status to enter the UK, granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter

to apply for citizenship. And that is precisely what we will do now. Next up, we'll talk to Newt Gingrich about how we'll look at 2020 in the history books. Are you proud to be an American? We're at such a critical moment in our nation's history, and it's more important than ever that we remind one another why we are blessed and truly proud to call ourselves Americans. The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America

have launched the hashtag proud American campaign. From now through July 4th, we're asking all our listeners to use the hashtag, Proud American, on social media and share why you are proud to live in the greatest nation, in the world. Joining us today is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, author of the new book, Trump and the American Future, Solving the Great Problems of Our Time.

Speaker Gingrich, thanks for joining us. I'm glad to be with you, and I'm a great fan of Heritage and have worked closely with Heritage for its entire career, actually, going back into the 1970s. Terrific. So in the introduction to your book, you mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the most important collective experience since World War II. How do you think coronavirus is changing Americans' views and perspectives? Well, I think we're still in turmoil about it, but I think that clearly if you think about an event which brings everybody into the same situation,

then you have to say that this has been a remarkable moment because every single American has experienced it. Now, I think that when you, you know, you're going to have a couple of different reactions. Some people think that it's made them more anti-government, and you see a pretty strong backlash growing about the idea of various public health people, you know, telling you what you can do and when you can do it and so forth. But at the same time, I think to other people are much more willing to let you. government to find their lives. So I think the national conversation is still going on. And I think

it partly will depend on how this comes out in the next six months or a year. You know, we're only in the middle of the first wave of this. We're going to get better at it very fast. And a friend of mine was pointing out to me last night, after all, the most dangerous that pandemic of the last 200 years, 1918, 1919, Spanish flu came and went. I mean, it was there, and then it wasn't there. It was just over. So it'll be interesting. You can't be sure what people will look back on.

I do think on a global basis, it has done a lot to make the Chinese less acceptable. And I see a lot of things beginning to happen that are very, very interesting. And I think that you're likely to have, I think worldwide you're likely to have a backlash. against China and the belief that the Chinese just plain live. So let's talk about China, which of course you also touch on that in your book. China failed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 globally after it originated in Wuhan. But instead of taking a back view, it seems that China is becoming more aggressive. We've seen it crack down on Hong Kong.

What do you think is going to happen to China in the future as a global player? Well, I mean, their goal is to be the dominant. and power in the world. And they're pretty clear about that because they were, prior to 1800, they were without doubt the richest civilization on the planet. So from their perspective, I think they look at this as a,

you know, there was a tell what they called the century of humiliation when the West dominated. And now they see themselves reverting to who they once were. The challenge they've got is that people increasingly are tired of them. They picked a fight recently with India, killed at least 20 Indian soldiers. They have been,

they rammed a Vietnamese patrol boat in the South China Sea. They recently collided with a Japanese naval vessel. As you point out, they are cracking down on Hong Kong with the whole world watching. They have somewhere between one and two million Uyghurs in Western China, who are in concentration camps and they're methodically trying to destroy

the culture of Tibet. So people look at all that and they think, you know, that's not necessarily a world that I like or a world that I'm very comfortable with and I think that as a result it has made it more difficult for the Chinese to go out and do the things they'd like to do.

I think people are more skeptical today than when they were in December. And you see it all over the planet. You see it in Canada, you see it in Britain, but you also see it in parts of South Asia. So to switch course a little bit, in the book, Trump and the American Future, you discuss a lot of the left's radical policy views. Just 20 or so years ago, when you were Speaker of the House, Republicans and Democrats were able to agree on things like a balanced budget, other policies. What has happened to the left in the past couple of decades and why? Well, I think we've had three generations of brainwashing going back to Herbert Marcosa at Berkeley in the early 1960s.

And I think that they've grown bigger and bigger. If you go back, I've recently been studying the period of 1967 to 72. You know, there were 2,500 bombings in that period. I mean, there was a genuine revolutionary left. They lost the fight who were basically crushed pretty decisively. but they were still there. So their children and their grandchildren are now the people who are out

and who are engaged in the kind of violence that we see, tearing down the looting store, and their number one characteristic is that they're an entire American. So speaking of the statues, we've obviously been seeing a time of great turbulence. In addition to the peaceful protests over the killing of George Floyd, there's been rioting, there's been looting,

there's been looting. As you said, statues have been torn down. And of course, it's not just of Confederate generals. We've seen statues of Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, others torn down. So you love history. You studied it. You've taught it. What do you think this moment means for America and how will we look back on it? Well, I think it's a decisive moment, and I don't think we know yet how it's going to work out. once you start tearing down statues, somebody hates the next statue, the statue after that. And so you end up with a statue that was built by freed slaves as a tribute to the man who freed them, Abraham Lincoln, is now inadequate, according to people who don't have a clue what the Civil War was like, what Lincoln did, or how gigantic the change was. You know, and so you basically have barbarians. And when the Taliban was destroying two giant Buddhist statues,

120 foot tall and 170 foot tall, in Afghanistan in 2001, virtually the entire world condemned them. And I would say the same thing now. These people are barbarians. They should be treated as barbarians. And we should recognize that, you know, they don't have any right to go out and destroy something randomly. based on what the mob feels like doing tonight.

And I think that makes a big difference. You also write in the book about the importance of conservative outreach to minorities. At a time like now when racial tensions are so high in our country, what message do conservatives have for minorities? Well, look, I think that we should, as a general rule, be the party that wants to find success. If the Democrats want to focus on white guilt, I think we should focus on black success. And we should have proven.

When you see 18 Americans killed in Chicago in one day, you know it should be possible for us to do better than that. And I think that it is, you know, really important for us to understand that all Americans deserve better than you're seeing, for example, from what's happening in Chicago or New York now. New York has had a sudden explosion of additional people being killed. And of course, you have probably the worst mayor in the country is de Blasio. So his reaction to having explosion of killings is to cut a billion dollars out of police budget and not hire the 1,300 additional police that they were supposed to have to replace people who are retiring. So you're going to have a smaller underfunded police department and he's doing this, by the way, in the middle of riots, in the middle of people out on the street

destroying things, and in the middle of a genuine surge of people being killed. So New York is going to revert to the pre-Juliani period and become a much, much more dangerous place than her husband. So in the book, you also write about why you're optimistic for space in the years ahead, including for space tourism. What do you think we should focus on when it comes to space? and do you really think most Americans would like to go there? I think probably 30 to 40% of Americans would like to go there, which is close to 100 million people, big enough to sustain the tourist industry. And you are going to see starting, I think, this year,

people like Virgin Galactic, which is going to take people up into near space, pretty pricey. It's like $250,000. I'm not sure why anyone, unless you're really rich, I would not recommend it. But it'll be quite an experience. brains and it's the beginning. You're going to see, as you see these reusable rockets, such as recently took the astronauts back up to the space station, and one was just actually done, fired yesterday, goes up, comes back down, gets to be reused. I think you're going to see continuing

expansion of our capacity in space. And I think it's one of the things that Trump has done, which is among the most important things that we've seen. I think it's really truly remarkably important for Americans to be in space. It should be a zone of freedom. And the truth is that we don't go there, you all are, in fact, going to pretty rapidly have the Chinese there, and they're not going to produce the kind of rules for space to you and are going to be very happy with.

What do you think the consequences would be if China is producing the rules for space? I think that the country that dominates space has a huge advantage in trying to, dominate entire human rights. And so the Chinese clearly want to do that as we talked about. And I think that if we allowed them to gain dominance in space, it would have enormous implications for military and other capabilities on Earth. So in Trump and the American future, you also discussed the Supreme Court a lot, you know, the attacks against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In the past couple of weeks, we've had several

very important Supreme Court decisions, including a couple on a board. and sexual orientation and gender identity that were very disappointing to conservatives. How do you think conservatives should approach the Supreme Court going forward? Well, I have to say that the Chief Justice has been a huge disappointment. I have not understood his rationale. He strikes me he's opportunistic. He bounces back and forth in ways that I just can't figure out what he's doing. And I think in that sense, we need a couple more people to offset him.

I think he's the most disappointing Republican appointments since David Souter, who turned out to be totally unreliable. So we're coming up on the 4th of July this week, obviously. Heritage Foundation, our parent organization and Heritage Action for America are urging Americans around the 4th to share why they're a proud American. Do you think we have a patriotism problem in this nation right now? Do people still realize why America is so great? And if you think we do have a problem there, how do we fix this? Well, I think we clearly have a problem because you have fewer people today say they're proud to be an American. Gallup just did a poll on this about two weeks ago.

The schools don't teach patriotic history. They teach stuff that basically lies. As I said earlier, we've had three generations of brainwashing. You have an active anti-American movement. I would argue that institutionalized anti-Americanism is much more dangerous. than institutionalized racism. And these people deeply oppose the survival of the United States is in the form it's in right now.

So I do think that it's important, you know, when I grew up at a time that I really learned a lot of American history, and I really came to believe that we were, in fact, the foundation of freedom because we were the first country in history to say that your personal rights come from God. And that was just an enormous revolution. Could you speak a little bit more about what you mean about the institutionalized anti-Americanism? Sure.

If you look at Antifa, it's clearly committed to destroying America. They say so openly in their material. If you went through colleges and took down the most anti-American comments by professors, you could fill up a series of books with people who dislike America and leave America's evil. The whole point of the New York Times 1619 project was to convince us, that America was founded the day slaves arrived and gets to a point where we had a senator, a Democratic senator from Virginia who said America invented slavery, which is a comment so ignorant that even for a Democratic senator, it's appalling. You have the three people who founded Black Lives

Matter are all Marxists dedicated to destroying America, and they say something, read their material. What we have, though, is a propaganda media that has replaced the news media, and the propaganda media is about as left wing as the rest of the people I'm describing. So they don't have any interest in going and looking at this. I mean, you have a 16-year-old African-American boy who's killed in the

autonomous zone in Seattle yesterday. Do you see anybody from Black Lives Matter? Do you see any sudden outrage on the national media? No, that was an inappropriate death because he wasn't killed by a policeman, therefore it must not have happened. You get

18 people killed in Chicago, and one Is that something we should be worried about? Not according to the elite media, not according to Black Lives Matter, because they weren't killed in a politically correct way. So I think you have to be honest about what are you watching? And I think it scares people, so they try not to think about it.

But what's your wife? All these things that have happened since the tragic killing of George Floyd, which was terrible, and anybody who saw the eight-and-minute video has to believe that that policeman was doing something horrible. that said, all of this spontaneous nationwide violence had nothing to do with George Floyd. These are people waiting for the right excuse.

They were out there with networks of activity. I do a podcast, and we did Andy Know, who's a reporter who spent writing a book on Antifa. He just said, these networks exist all over the country. And when they get an excuse, they become stunningly destructive. But it's not like they didn't emerge because of the destruction. They were there. They were ready. They were prepared. The destructiveness just was the most recent excuse. Okay. Well, again, the book is called Trump in the American Future. Speaker Gingrich, thanks so much for joining us today. Thanks.

And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. We appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify. Please, leave us a review or rating on owl podcasts and give us your feedback. Stay healthy and we will be back with you on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.