Oh Newt. You predictable dick.
In the past week or so, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has really wowed me and others with his surprisingly enlightened stance on race and police violence, leading to pieces like:
It was an exhilarating time. But it’s over now.
In an interview Thursday evening with Sean Hannity, Gingrich, who is likely reeling from his rapidly decreasing chance of being Trump’s running mate, responded to the attack in Nice, France that left at least 77 people dead with an extraordinary proposal.
“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be,” he said. “Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported. Sharia is incompatible with western civilization.”
“The first step is you have to ask them the questions. The second step is you have to monitor what they’re doing on the internet. The third step is, let me be very clear, you have to monitor the mosques.”
He suggested that anyone who visits a website supportive of ISIS or Al Qaeda be arrested for a felony, which is a charming way to rip up the Constitution. And if internet censorship doesn’t work to completely take down ISIS?
“We should destroy them with kinetic power, using various weapons starting with predators and frankly just killing them.”
In a debate preceding the 2012 election, Gingrich also spoke terribly about Muslims, noting, “If you’re not prepared to be loyal to the United States, you will not serve in my administration,” (referring to Muslim people.)
He continued: “We did this in dealing with the Nazis. We did this in dealing with the Communists. And it was controversial both times and both times we discovered after a while, you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country.”
I don’t want to use this comparison, but since he brought it up, I’d probably argue that the people suggesting we round up and question citizens based on their religion is more similar to Nazism.
But apparently, we’re all misunderstanding.
So we all have that to look forward to!
Image via Getty.
