Newt Gingrich: Make Midterms Referendum on Immigration

On Tuesday’s “Laura Ingraham Show,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich argued the issue of immigration would be politically advantageous for Republicans, especially in this Fall’s midterm elections.

Gingrich predicted that executive amnesty by President Barack Obama could be lead to a “civil war” within the Democratic Party, and “may well be the final destruction of much of the modern Democratic Party.”  “If you look at the latest polls on immigration, they are Obama’s weakest issue” Gingrich said.  And executive amnesty would be found “very unacceptable” by most voters. 

“Look at the position it puts all of the Democrats up for re-election in the Senate, my guess is that within days of coming back, the House Republicans will pass a bill that repudiates what the president’s done, and the challenge then will be for every Democrat up for re-election in the Senate, are you going to go along with Harry Reid and Barack Obama and get defeated? Or are you going to vote to overturn them?” he stated. 

Gingrich added that “Republicans have an easy political answer [to an executive order granting amnesty], which is to say ‘the election of 2014 is a referendum. If you think the President of the United States should allow millions and millions of people, as many as he wants in the end, to come into the United States and to be legal residents by fiat of his pen, vote Democrat.  If you want the rule of law and the American Constitution applied, vote Republican.’”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett