Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who led impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, said Friday he agrees with Democrat House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's assessment that proceeding with impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump is "not worthwhile" at this time.
"My experience in the late 90's we had a report from Ken Starr you can pull up, a public document, that says President Clinton was guilty on 11 counts," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "Five of them said he is guilty on obstruction. You take 11 counts of guilty, compare it to the [Robert] Mueller report, which does not allege any criminal guilt of any kind."
Gingrich said that even with the evidence against Clinton, after the debate on impeachment ended the country became more worried about the economy and healthcare.
"I thought it was appalling that we had a president who had broken the law on 11 different counts," said Gingrich. "He did lose his license to practice law. In Arkansas. He was clearly guilty. But, at the same time, the country rendered a larger judgment."
Meanwhile, with Mueller's investigation, 12 attorneys were career Democrats, and they still could not find Trump guilty of anything, said Gingrich.
"The biggest thing that goes out of the details is the that the president is a very aggressive entrepreneur," said Gingrich.
He added that he thinks more left-wing Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will continue to call for Trump's impeachment, but "the average Democrat is going to pretty rapidly decide this is not a sound direction to go in," said Gingrich.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.