Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he once thought his party made a mistake when it twice shut down the government in the 1990s. Not anymore.
"As I got away from Washington, and was no longer speaker and thought about it for about two years, it occurred to me that that's all nonsense," Gingrich told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. After the shutdown of 1995 the House Republicans saw their first re-elected House Republican majority since 1928.
"So I've always wondered: What is this big price that we paid?" Gingrich said.
Blitzer countered that Democratic President Bill Clinton's re-election was a result of the shutdown, but Gingrich said multiple factors contributed to Clinton's victory, including the fact he had signed welfare reform.
Earlier in the day, Gingrich told
fellow Republicans to move beyond the perception they are only focused on opposing President Barack Obama and convince voters they want to improve Americans' lives.
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