Gingrich warns Freedom Caucus to study its era as Tories issue demand letter after Johnson vote

Former spokesperson Newt Gingrich, who led Republicans to their first House majority in four decades in 1994, said Saturday that the House Freedom Caucus should remember how his own group brought conservatives to power within the party.

Gingrich tweeted that he and other conservatives had developed “positive action principles” in 1983 as part of what they called the Conservative Opportunity Society.

“(They) led 11 years later to the Contract with America and the first Republican majority in the House of Representatives in 40 years.”

“If the Freedom Caucus studied them, they could be dramatically more effective,” Gingrich said, then cited and agreed with a sentiment from political reporter Mark Halperin’s “Wide World of News” newsletter.

“(T)he Freedom Caucus is a group of rebels with a set of causes but no coherent path to achieving those causes,” Halperin wrote.

In the 1980s, although Ronald Reagan was in the White House, Boston Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill exerted strong control of the House. O’Neill and Reagan had a remarkably friendly but ideologically disparate relationship.

Coinciding with the early days when C-SPAN televised the proceedings live, Gingrich often went to the well of the House late at night and addressed conservative issues in a chamber mostly empty but with a captive audience in the new television format. .

GINGRICH HIGHLIGHTS HARRIS’ ‘DIRAVANT’ SPEECHES

Gingrich biographer Craig Shirley told Fox News Digital on Saturday that the Freedom Caucus should study the work of his comparative predecessor, the Conservative Opportunity Society, as well as Gingrich’s path from low-profile congressman to speaker.

“I guess the word brilliant is used very, very arrogantly. So let me say it was extremely smart politics to defend conservative governance,” Shirley said of Gingrich’s work in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Reagan had already blazed that trail eight years before Gingrich.”

While critics say the Republican Party has moved hard to the right on some issues and softened on others, Shirley said it’s essentially the same as it was during Gingrich’s rise.

“Less government, more freedom, less taxes, a strong, pro-life national defense.”

Former Rope. Weber wineRepublican of Minnesota, another top member of Gingrich’s conservative caucus, said in a PBS interview that there haven’t been too many groups like the Conservative Opportunity Society (or the Freedom Caucus, which had not formed at the time of the interview). ) and that there was the same problem with fear of angering his party leaders.

Weber said there had been some small conservative groups within the caucus before the Reagan era, including one in the 1960s led by then-Rep. Donald Rumsfeld, Republican of Illinois. – who would serve as Pentagon chief twice.

On the last day of the 1982 session, Gingrich approached Weber and asked, “What will you do next year and for the next ten years?”

“I thought it was interesting and said, ‘I hope to come back here, but nothing special other than that,'” Weber recalled.

“What he was saying was that he, as a person, was not being effective… He identified me at the (Republican Party) conference as someone who had supported his point of view and perhaps had some ability to organize things.” said Weber.

MIKE JOHNSON RE-ELECTED HOUSE PRESIDENT

Shirley said the current Freedom Caucus has a rare opportunity to achieve its goals if it plays its cards right, with full Republican control of Washington.

“They don’t have a ‘contract,’ but they have the best option. They have a core set of issues and an ideology that they can easily follow,” he said, adding that “no one should ever doubt.” Mike Johnson’s commitment to “Reaganist” principles.

In additional comments to Fox News’ “Hannity,” Gingrich said Friday’s one-round vote was a “huge victory” for Johnson, R-Louisiana.

“(He is) just a decent, hard-working, intelligent human being… I couldn’t have been the kind of speaker he is. I don’t have the patience. I don’t have the ability to keep moving forward. It’s really quite extraordinary.”

Meanwhile, Member of the Freedom Caucus Ralph Norman, R.S.C., told Fox News that the group met with Johnson previously and that he “just didn’t come away feeling like the ‘umph’ or the willingness to fight for Trump’s agenda was there.”

“And I use as a backdrop what’s happened over the last 14 months: We had 1,500-page omnidirectional bills that couldn’t be read, where there were no spending cuts to offset $100 billion in new spending.”

“And I know we had a slim majority, but that’s over now. What we wanted to impress on (Johnson) yesterday was: Are you going to fight for these things that we’ve been asking for, like a balanced budget? Offsets? Like backing everything Trump’s agenda?

Norman, along with Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, initially did not vote for Johnson, which would have set up a second round of speaker voting.

But Norman told “The Story” that action was the “only way to make my voice heard.”

He said Johnson “gave his word” to fight for the things he mentioned to Fox News, and that that agreement, plus a message from Trump that Johnson was the only speaker candidate with support in the caucus, guided his decision to support ultimately to Louisiana.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter published Friday, the House Freedom Caucus President Andy Harris, R-Md., and its members expressed several policy points that Johnson should commit to in order to “reverse the damage of the Biden-Harris administration” as well as achieve long-standing conservative goals.

The letter stated that they had voted for Johnson because of his “strong support” for Trump and ensuring that the Jan. 6 elector certification can proceed smoothly.

“We did this despite our sincere reservations about the Speaker’s record over the past 15 months.”

The caucus called on Johnson to modify the House calendar so that its agenda is as busy as the Senate’s, ensure that reconciliation legislation reduces spending and deficits in “real terms” and stops violations of the “rule of 72 hours” for the debate on bill amendments.

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They also demanded that Johnson not rely on Democrats to pass legislation that the majority of his own caucus will not support.

In comments on “The Story,” Norman said he believes Johnson now understands – through the initial silence of several Republicans during the first roll call vote and his and Self’s initial vote against Johnson – that he will have to work to consider the position of the conservative bloc. demands.