In his post-debate analysis for FOX News Channel on Sunday night, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gave Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump praise for his performance against Hillary Clinton.
And in doing so, he criticized fellow Republicans who have distanced themselves, or completely abandoned, the GOP nominee.
“First of all, tonight they have a lot of egg on their face because the guy who came—showed up in the debate tonight clearly was the Republican nominee and he clearly has earned being the Republican nominee, and it’s kind of crazy for someone to suggest dumping him at this point,” he said. “I would hope a lot of those who panicked over the weekend would reconsider their position in light of what we have learned about Hillary through WikiLeaks and the importance of stopping her from truly crippling the country. …
“He was very fast and I think very good in coming back on a number of occasions, basically totally outmaneuvering her in terms of language. For example, bringing her own record to bear. You know she was false about when the red line in Syria occurred. She actually was the secretary of state when it was first announced.
“Trump would say something which was clearly factually based and then she would say, ‘Well he’s not telling the truth again.’ But if you look at it again and again, her problem is 33,000 emails deleted is real. Making millions of dollars off of while you’re serving the government is real. So you go down these items and Hillary had a problem.”
Gingrich then proceeded to tell host Sean Hannity he thought Hillary Clinton was “totally rattled” by having the four abuse victims in the audience. In doing so, he said Trump was able to “thread a needle” by having the press conference in advance, and having the women there, but not using it as an issue until Clinton forced the matter.
“Plus, he was using a very calm tone of voice—something you and I used to talk to him about—where I think he met the standard, and the result was he felt OK while he was saying very tough things,” he said. “I think that in the end he did very well.”
Hannity also asked Gingrich if the speaker was equally perplexed by Clinton’s decision to “force the issue” of the 11-year-old audio recording, in light of her own issues with women in the past. Gingrich was, and said he thought the decision to press the matter with Trump was “kind of crazy.”
“She knew that he was prepared to fight over that stuff,” he said. “She knew that he had the witnesses in the audience he could call on. And she knew that he had apologized in a way that would be acceptable to most independents and most Republicans—probably not convinced left-wing Democrats—but nonetheless they were to stay away from that.
“She came back and went after him in a way which was almost like putting up a big sign begging, ‘Please kick me.’ I don’t know why. I don’t get it. So he hit her, and he hit her—I thought—very directly, very powerfully. I particularly think the one case—and you know the young woman in question—the case of the 12-year-old, of Hillary laughing about getting this accused rapist off.
“It is so indefensible given her arguments about how you should treat women that it’s just breathtaking that she would get into that particular fight. But it was done well. My fear was the whole debate was going to degenerate into that kind of stuff. Instead, you had very intense decisive moments, then you went back to public policy questions. And there you have to give Trump a lot of credit.”
Gingrich told Hannity he didn’t see how anybody could say the debate lacked “a very significant amount of substance and policy differentiation” that was far more than in the first debate.
“Trump did much better tonight,” he added. “Now, if he improves as much over tonight as he did over the first night, the third debate will just be so one-sided it’ll be embarrassing.”
Gingrich reminded the host that in the first debate Trump did very well in the first 45 minutes, but not nearly as well in the second 45. He said that in Sunday night’s debate, Trump was gaining energy and Clinton was losing it in the end.
“He was even better in the second half of the debate and the gap between the two of them was getting to be bigger and bigger and I think that’s something that that he and his team should feel very good about,” he said. “I think they’ve come a really long way.”
Asked by Hannity if he thought Trump will now win the election on Nov. 8, Gingrich said he thought the Republican nominee was “back on track.” The key to victory is to keep on the issues that matter to voters.
“The Brazilian bankers, she told them in a secret speech she wants open borders, which means 600 million people could come to United States,” he said. “On that one issue alone he could beat her decisively and so I think the odds are he wins despite everything the media has done in a totally one-sided way.”
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