Newt Gingrich on the 1994 Republican Revolution and his Career in Politics

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2015

⏱️ 107 minutes

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Summary

In this conversation, Gingrich gives an inside account of the 1994 Republican Revolution, when Republicans took control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in forty years. The former speaker also recalls his first political campaigns and how he began to influence Washington in the 1980s. Finally, Gingrich offers a personal take on mentors, allies, and rivals, including Gerald Ford, Jack Kemp, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton—as well as his reflections on presidents from Eisenhower to Obama.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Welcome back to Conversations. I'm Bill Crystal and I'm very pleased to be joined today
0:18.6	by former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Good to be with you.
0:22.0	Thanks for being here.
0:24.0	Now let's get right into one of the high water marks of my time in Washington and my time following
0:28.5	politics, which was the Republican victory in the House, both houses of Congress in 1994, something that was very unexpected at the time.
0:37.0	People sort of forgotten that.
0:38.0	A real inflection point, I think, in American politics.
0:41.0	For 40 years years Republicans had
0:43.4	never controlled the house and what for 18 of the subsequent 22 what's in 2016
0:49.2	Republicans will have so it's a real moment you know and young people kind of assume
0:52.7	what Republicans control the House that's that's kind of the way things work but it
0:56.2	sure didn't didn't look that way to those who grew up when I grew up or when you
0:59.6	grow up yeah I think even the night before the election,
1:03.2	most reporters and most analysts thought,
1:07.2	well, they'll gain 20, 30 seats.
1:10.3	Karen Tamaldi, who's now at the Washington Post,
1:12.0	covered me for time.
1:13.4	That was her first big assignment.
1:15.1	And she spent a week with me on the road.
1:17.2	And at the end of it, the editor said,
1:18.9	we're pulling you off because you've gone native.
1:21.2	You actually think they can win.
	...

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