Newt rips into John McCain, saying he used to be a good maverick in his younger years for taking on his party, but now he’s disappointed that he’s going after Rand Paul who he says was clearly in the right.
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BLITZER: This is a real battle that’s brewing on John McCain and his friends, on the one side, Senator Rand Paul and some others on the other side. One congressman from Michigan, Justin Amash, Tweeted: “Senator McCain called Senator Paul, Senator Ted Cruz and me wacko birds. Bravo, Senator, you’ve got us. Did you come up with that at #dinnerwithbarack?”
So who are you with, the McCains or the Rand Pauls?
GINGRICH: Well, I’m really disappointed in John McCain. And I’m very saddened by it. McCain, in his younger years, was a great maverick. He took on his party all the time.
Um, the idea that he’s now lecturing the next generation because they have the guts to stand up, which is I – I would have thought John McCain we do have applauded them and he would have said, I may not agree with you in detail, but I’m proud of the fact that you’re standing up for your beliefs, you’re fighting.
I don’t know what’s happened to John McCain. But I find this very sad.
BLITZER: But on the substance of the issue, whether or not the – the Obama administration needed to spell out the use of drones against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, who – who’s right, McCain…
GINGRICH: Ron Paul is right. I mean if our constitution means anything, it means that your government can’t capriciously kill you without the rule of law. And it was very clear from the attorney general’s earlier letters that they were reserving the right – remember, we’re not talking about a combatant engaged in fighting against the US. The minute you do that, you lose all your rights…
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BLITZER: What do you make of this split that appears to be emerging among Republicans on this very sensitive issue?
GINGRICH: I think there’s a deeper split, which is a – which is a split about tone. There are some Republicans who are so used to going to nice restaurants in Georgetown and they’re so used to hanging out with their friends in the establishment, that the tone bothers them.
Uh, I saw nothing that Rand Paul did that was inappropriate. In fact, it was exactly why the U.S. Senate extends to individual senators the right to talk forever. I’m for the House. We used to get one minute.
BLITZER: Right.
GINGRICH: Uh, but the Senate has a very different tradition of individuals standing up. So I thought Rand Paul was behaving in the best tradition of the U.S. Senate. And I thought for a guy like McCain, who had always been a maverick, who had – had reveled in opposing his party’s establishment, to now be the – the sort of senior lecturer on behalf of, uh, how you should behave, I just thought it was a very sad moment.
BLITZER: What do you think of the president’s new charm offensive…
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: – inviting a dozen Republican senators to dinner at the Jefferson Hotel, inviting Paul Ryan the next day for lunch at the White House. He’s going to meet with the Republican Caucus on the Hill next week.
You lived through a presidential charm offensive when Bill Clinton was president. You were speaker.
GINGRICH: Yes.
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BLITZER: You used to be a Fox News analyst. Roger Ailes, who’s the head of Fox News, in this new book that Ben Chafetz (ph) has written about him, he quotes him as saying some nasty things about you. Roger Ailes talking about you. You’ve seen those quotes, I’m sure. What do you think? What do you make of that, because you’ve worked with him…
GINGRICH: I think he was…
BLITZER: – for a long time?
GINGRICH: – and at the time I – and, by the way, “Forbes” magazine has come out and said my criticism was right, because I said at the time that – that, in fact, I thought they were very unfair in how they covered me during the campaign, which was really a great irony to me.
BLITZER: Why was – why do you think that they – from your perspective…
GINGRICH: I have no idea.
BLITZER: – they were unfair to you? You were part of their team for a long time.
GINGRICH: I have no idea. But that seemed to make them unhappy. So, look, roger is a big boy. He’s said lots of things about lots of people in his career. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve had lots of different people say things about me.
BLITZER: You haven’t spoken to him…
GINGRICH: That doesn’t worry…
BLITZER: – since those quotes came out?
GINGRICH: No, I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. We’re – we’re fine. It’s not – we don’t have any personality fight.
BLITZER: That’s that. You’re a big boy. He’s a big boy. And we move on.
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