Kingston, who was a Republican representative for Georgia’s 1st congressional district from 1993 to 2015, commented on the GOP in an interview with DW News’ Conflict Zone and said he thought it was in a “very good position.”
Pressed on this he said: “Let me tell you why, three reasons.
“Number one, history shows from Bush to Trump, to Obama to Clinton, that the party out of power will take back the House and the Senate. History’s on our side.
“Number two, there’s Joe Biden himself. I don’t know if he makes it four years, he could not remember the name of his own secretary of defense the other day. That, by the way, scares everybody, and our enemies more especially watched it than anybody.
“Number three, look at the Democrat party right now. [Andrew] Cuomo, their hero, the toast of the town, has his own party saying he needs to resign. Then look at the other jumbo state in America, California, Gavin Newsom’s being recalled…” The interviewer interjected with comments at this point, calling for Kingston to focus on the GOP not the Democratic Party.
On the first point, historically the party which holds the presidency does appear to perform poorly in the midterms compared to the major party that does not hold the White House.
Kingston’s second remark referred to Biden as he delivered remarks on March 8, Biden went to refer to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and said: “I want to thank Sec-—the former general—I keep calling him ‘General.’ My—the guy who runs that outfit over there.”
Biden had referred to Austin by name earlier in his comments. A Snopes fact check on whether Biden forgot Austin’s name determined this claim to be a “mixture,” a label that indicates “a claim has significant elements of both truth and falsity to it such that it could not fairly be described by any other rating.”
For the third point, Cuomo is currently under fire from members of his own party following accusations of sexual harassment. He has insisted he will not resign despite being urged to do so.
Newsom is also facing a recall effort with a campaign behind this having stated that have gathered more than 2 million signatures for this. Newsom has said he will fight what he has branded a “partisan, Republican recall.”
Kingston’s comments on the state of the Republican Party come amid a continued split over Trump.
On this Kingston, whose Twitter bio reads “Conservative activist, Trump surrogate & former congressman,” said: “We will sort through the kind of the trump and not trump types in the party, and I don’t mean hardcore non-Trump. But I think we’ll sort through that. Just as the Democrat Party has their hard-left progressives, they deal with it they have the moderates.”
There are those within GOP who remain loyal to Trump, while others have urged the GOP to move away from him following his election defeat.
Polling has indicated Trump still has significant backing among Republican supporters.
Asked if the GOP is Trump’s party, Kingston said he does not think so but recognized Trump as one of its “dynamic leaders.”
“I don’t believe that it is,” he said. “We’re in a big tent situation, he’s absolutely one of the dynamic leaders of the party.”
In 2020, as Trump lost the White House the GOP also lost its Senate majority. The Democrats retained the majority in the House.
In 2022, 34 Senate seats will be up for reelection as will every seat in the House. (https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress_elections,_2022)
Newsweek has contacted Kingston for further comment. Newsweek has also contacted the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee for comment on the party’s positions.
