Right-wing political operative, author and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is calling President Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh the president’s “best performance so far” and “an example of the way President Trump is brilliantly strategic on the issues that are really important.” Gingrich’s comments were made in an op-ed for Fox News and during an appearance on the network this week. Gingrich said he was in the White House just hours before the announcement to meet with Vice President Mike Pence and other officials, and that he had a chance to spend time with Kavanaugh.
From his Wednesday op-ed:
As I wrote in my new New York Times best-selling book “Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Nation’s Great Comeback,” President Trump’s ability to reshape the judiciary could be the most important, longest-lasting aspect of his presidency.
Not only is the president nominating judges at a fast clip, he is tending to nominate judges who are relatively young. Kavanaugh is only 53. If he serves until he is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s age, he will be on the nation’s highest court until 2050.
This is the Trump plan to strategically shift the judiciary toward constitutionalism. Since these appointments are for life, President Trump’s influence on the federal court system will last decades beyond his time in office.
This is clearly important for the president’s Supreme Court appointments, but the biggest impact will come from his appointments to the lower courts – the courts that more regularly impact the daily lives of Americans and create the talent pool for future Supreme Court nominations.
“Since these appointments are for life,” Gingrich said, “President Trump’s influence on the federal court system will last decades beyond his time in office.”
Gingrich praised the remarks made by Kavanaugh at the White House announcement of his nomination as “professionally sound and unassumingly personable,” adding, “I couldn’t help but wonder how the Democrats are going to try to demonize this eminently likable man, who currently serves on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.”
When hearing Gingrich express concern about demonization in American politics, it is good to recall the huge role that Gingrich played in toxifying political discourse in America when he was at the height of his political power. “Language: a Key Mechanism of Control,” an infamous memo from his political group GOPAC, urged conservative political activists to smear their opponents with words such as “betray,” “corrupt,” “decay,” “disgrace,” “pathetic,” “radical,” “sick” and “traitors.”
No wonder Christian nationalist David Lane said in 2016 that Gingrich would make a “Dream Veep” for Trump.
Gingrich’s current wife Callista, a former Hill staffer with whom he conducted an affair while married to his second wife, is serving as Trump’s hand-picked ambassador to the Holy See.
