NEWT:
Go ahead. I was going to say what you just said poses a real dilemma for both America and the rest of the world. Does Vladimir Putin get to do anything he wants to, because if he say no, he’s going to go to nuclear war? Or do you stand up to him and say, you know, there are limits to what we’re going to tolerate? And the truth is, if you went to a nuclear war, your entire country would disappear. There would be no Russia left. So to what extent is he running a bluff? And to what extent are we all supposed to hide and cower? In which case does that mean he gets to take Poland? Does he get to take Germany? I mean, at what point does his threat not become real anymore? And I think this is a very serious problem of managing a personality that’s pretty isolated, getting older and may feel like this is his last chance to create a greater Russian empire.
NEWT:
Well, I think that’s part of it. But I also think, frankly, that he has contempt for Biden. I think he respected Trump as a as a tough guy. And you had the same experience with Xi Jinping. I mean, around the world, people thought Donald Trump was genuinely tough and that he would, in fact, do things that were decisive, like, for example, killing General Soleimani, the Iranian leader in a precise strike, the result was people were pretty tame while Trump was president. I think they watched Joe Biden stumble around, get confused, and generally, you know, except for 2 hours with a great deal of being juiced up his presidency, as you saw with the transcript yesterday, this is not a guy you get up in the morning and say, boy, I’m really scared of him. And I think that’s part of what Putin’s language is all about.
NEWT:
Well, I think a lot of them will just stay home. They won’t vote for Trump, but they just won’t show up to vote at all, which hurts the Democrats at every level. The Senate races, the House races, the governor’s races, as well as the presidency. But I also think, you know, Biden has two very different problems. He has a problem on his left, largely about the fact that he has supported Israel and Israel is gradually destroying Hamas. And that’s a problem with very specific people, for example, in Michigan. Then he has a problem with everybody because they go to the grocery store, they go to the gas station. You know, Bidenism isn’t working. I mean, Bidenomics is beginning to resemble Herbert Hoover. And I think as a result, Biden has got a huge problem. And speeches don’t change. And advertising doesn’t change because people go to the store and they say, in my own life, I know what he’s doing to me. And if you’ll notice, people consistently now say that they were better off personally, better off under Trump than they are under Biden. That’s a devastating mountain for a candidate to try to climb.