Thanks for posting this. I heard the interview this morning and didn’t recall it like the headline said. Like anyone needs to exaggerate shit about Gingrich. Usually what he says is horrible enough, although in this particular instance he at least was on the side of saying the conflicts of interest are a big problem.
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Until the past month or so, I’d thought Mr. Gingrich was dead; you know, like those old-time actors whom think is already dead until you find out they’ve actually died recently?
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Well the point is moot since we all now that Hillary died of pneumonia yesterday.
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Asking Newt Gingrich about professional ethics is like asking Adolf Hitler to make a Torah reading. Its not like either are going to know jackshit about the subjects.
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It is a change of pace from the usual Trump Family vacation upstate, to hunt homeless veterans for sport and food.
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In this case, I think Cory is right. The headline implies what Newt actually said. Here is the quote in context:
[quote]GINGRICH I mean, you can’t say that Trump Tower is not the Trump Tower or the Trump hotel is not the Trump hotel, and you can’t say that the kids who run it aren’t his children. So you go through all – you can do contortions, but the fact is these are facts, and they’re obvious. Second, the – it’s interesting story. The whole anti-nepotism thing is Lyndon Johnson’s reaction to Bobby Kennedy and the fact that Johnson Kennedy, and Kennedy had been attorney general under his brother and that it was a very narrowly focused bill really in reaction to a particular personality thing.
11:32:12
GINGRICH Prior to I think it was 1964 or '4, prior to that no one ever worried about it. I mean, it wasn’t something which came up. And so I think that it’s – you have to look at it in the context of what they were trying to accomplish. I think in the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon. I mean, it is a totally open power, and he could simply say look, I want them to be my advisors, I pardon them if anybody finds them to have behaved against the rules, period. And technically under the Constitution he has that level of authority.
11:32:56
REHM And you’re listening to the Diane Rehm Show. That level of authority strikes me as rather broad and perhaps ought to be in the hands of the Congress rather than within his own hands, Mr. Speaker.
11:33:18
GINGRICH Well the – I mean, the founding fathers deliberately granted the president unequivocal ability to pardon, and they did so in reaction to the British use of going back after people legally and persecuting them by changing the law after they had done something. So there was a very deep sense that you had to fear government and that government could be the enemy, and the founding fathers were walking this tightrope.
11:33:51
GINGRICH They wanted a government strong enough that it could defend America against foreigners, but they wanted a government controlled enough that it wouldn’t threaten Americans, and that’s part of what this balance of power is. And if you read the Federalist Papers, they were quite what they were doing and why they were doing it.
[/quote]
After stating that Trump has the authority to “organize the White House the way he wants to” and that he can use his pardon power to make it happen, Newt defends the extreme power of pardons saying they are a deliberate and unequivocal power granted by the Founding Fathers as a balance of powers.
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Oh you.
The ones that make decisions, yes.
The workers, no. But they are not in positions of power.
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Who does the actual work and enforcement?
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What is with the “fake-newsey” headlines getting more and more common on BoingBoing? Gingrich was issuing a warning to the public, not a suggestion to Trump. And making a challenge to Congress, essentially, to deal with the issue so it doesn’t become a real problem.
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Hi there, person who’s only been here before to complain about the way Trump’s weight was reported. I look forward to more interesting contributions from you.
i.e to change the rules to brush very real conflicts of interest under the carpet.
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Beat me to it. I’m sure that’s what @Phrenological meant in the first place. Let’s all hope that distinction doesn’t become important in the years ahead.
And everything he said is in the context of: this is a real problem, and Congress must deal with it.
In no way was stating support of Trump doing anything like this. So he defends the presidential pardon, so what?
He is pointing out a loophole that has never been tested because presidents have used their pardon power with restraint, and there’s the chance that Trump doesn’t use that restraint, and uses it to overcome ethics laws. Thus, Gingrich says, Congress needs to figure this out.
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As a member of Trump’s transition team, shouldn’t Gingrich be spending more time and energy telling his boss that he’s not supposed to do this shit, even if it’s technically permissible, rather than sitting around telling Congress they’d better do something about the dangerous and unprecedented presidency of the man they all worked so hard to get elected?
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KingGhidorah beat me to it, but:
11:35:07
GINGRICH
Well sure. I mean, I think first of all the Congress always can hold hearings and can examine any kind of, you know, any kind of conflict of interest. I think second, the Congress can try to figure out how do you do this. My point is we have never seen this kind of wealth in the White House, and so traditional rules don’t work, and we’re going to have to think up, you know, a whole new approach.
11:35:40
GINGRICH
I’ve suggested that people who are widely respected, like Attorney General Mukasey, might – that the president-elect might want to form a panel who are sort of a review group, if that makes sense, and that the panel would monitor regularly what was going on and would offer warnings if they get too close to the edge. I think it’s a – you know, it’s a very real problem. I don’t think this is something minor. And I think certainly in an age when people are convinced that government corruption is widespread both in the United States and around the world, you can’t just shrug and walk off from it. It’s an issue that we have to think through, and we have to find a solution for
No defense of Gingrich here, but let’s be accurate about what was said. I, respectfully, think your context needs to broaden to encompass the entire interview.
There’s precedent. Gerald Ford used to blame his farts on the Secret Service.
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“Gingrich: Trump should illegally hire his relatives, profit from inside dealing, and then pardon them”
Well, no, that’s not really what he said. From the transcript in context, he’s specifically saying “he could do these things”, as if he’s using that to illustrate a point and to warn people about the potential reach and impact of the Presidential pardon when that power is abused.
There’s a very big difference between that and “he should” illegally hire his relatives. Gingrich is not recommending this as a positive and productive course of action.
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Boiling water doesn’t even come close. 
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He definitely should be doing that. He won’t. Seems more likely (a little - I’m pessimistic of either chance) that congress would do something legislatively towards this than the executive exercise voluntary restraint. It would be pretty great if everyone was not a dick, but that’s not the case -but it is a reason to have laws. It’s not an unreasonable view to think that congress should tackle this.
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[quote=“KingGhidorah, post:49, topic:91489”]
What is with the “fake-newsey” headlines getting more and more common on BoingBoing? [/quote]
Not that it’s an excuse, but this is nothing new and it’s been common for a long time. Pretty sure it’s all about the clicks.
Gingrich has been Trump’s #1 booster from the start of the campaign. In the context of the discussion, Gingrich was dismissing the suggestion that nepotism and conflicts of interest were a problem and was thinking through ways that Trump could maintain his nepotism and conflicts of interest and later justifying using pardons.
The full context is here:
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