Pelosi is likened to ‘dictator’ Putin and branded a ‘threat to constitutional liberty’ by former speaker Gingrich
FORMER Speaker Newt Gingrich has likened Nancy Pelosi to Vladimir Putin and branded her the “greatest threat to constitutional liberty in our lifetime.”
The blistering broadside came as part of a scathing op-ed penned by Gingrich for his blog, Gingrich360.com, about what he calls Pelosi’s “dictatorship.”
Gingrich, who served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999, titled the op-ed “The Pelosi Dictatorship and the Destruction of American Freedom,” and hypothetically asked Democrats if they support her “ruthless dictatorial behavior.”
“Let me speak bluntly and directly,” Gingrich began. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the greatest threat to constitutional liberty in our lifetime.
“With the passive support of an apparently cowardly caucus, she is behaving as a dictator more like Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, or Nicolás Maduro.”
‘LIKE PUTIN’
Gingrich continued by blasting Pelosi’s decision to keep fencing around the US Capitol for months after the January 6 riots, “even when members of her own party were calling for it to come down,” he said.
He also bemoaned Pelosi stripping Marjorie Taylor Greene – whom he called a “duly elected Republican” – from all of her committee assignments for her past support of violence against lawmakers and the QAnon movement.
“Now, she is threatening to have members of Congress and their staffs arrested if they do not follow the mask mandate which exists by her own decree,” Gingrich added.
“If her power, arrogance, and destructiveness is allowed to continue growing, she will shatter the precedents of the U.S. House, undermine hundreds of years of common legislative precedent going back to the Magna Carta of 1215, and the destroy the established principle that those who write laws are still subordinate to them.”
‘RABIDLY RADICAL’
The Republican suggested that the “key path to stopping Pelosi” is through Democratic districts that are not “rabidly radical.”
“There are probably 100 Democrats who represent districts wherein prostituting themselves for a Pelosi dictatorship would be politically expensive – if people back home understood what was happening and why it mattered,” he wrote.
“I am enraged at this raw use of power to destroy the precedents and patterns which have made the U.S. House of Representatives a remarkable bulwark of freedom and a symbol for people around the world.”
Any Republicans who are collaborating with Pelosi should be “ashamed of themselves” too, wrote Gingrich.
“She is using them to sustain her dictatorship, and they are making it harder for House Republicans to effectively oppose her.”
“Do you really support the ruthless dictatorial behavior of Pelosi?” Gingrich said that every House Democrat should be asked.
“Do you realize she can apply it to you as well as to Republicans? Are you really willing to watch the centuries-old traditions of free self-government be destroyed by an 81-year-old petty dictator who clearly has allowed power to go to her head?”
‘MORE DANGEROUS THAN BIDEN’
Gingrich added that the power Pelosi has accumulated during her more than three decades on Capitol Hill has “destroyed her sense of balance, moderation, and following the rules.
“A lot of people talk about cognition and President Joe Biden. Every day, Speaker Pelosi gives us reason to believe she is far more dangerous, destructive, and egocentric than President Biden could ever be,” he wrote.
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Gingrich closed out his post by calling on members of Congress to consider stripping Pelosi of certain powers or remove her completely from her post.
“There should be a concerted national campaign looking for ten courageous Democrats willing to stand up to the Pelosi dictatorship and defend freedom in America,” he concluded.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik made similar remarks in July about Pelosi, calling her a “radical authoritarian speaker.”