Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is facing criticism from some in his own party after suggesting over the weekend that members of the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection “face a real risk of jail.”
On Sunday, Gingrich joined Fox News to talk about his op-ed in Newsweek, titled “The Wolves Will Become Sheep,” in which he compared the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot to Cuba’s “Castro brothers torturing, imprisoning and exiling political opponents.” He went further on Fox News, threatening jail for those committee members if Republicans retake control of Congress in this year’s elections.
“I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down,” said Gingrich, a Donald Trump supporter who has called President Joe Biden’s election victory illegitimate. “And the wolves are going to find out that they’re now sheep and they’re the ones who are in fact, I think, face a real risk of jail for the kinds of laws they’re breaking.”
Gingrich didn’t specify which laws he thinks were being broken.
Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), members of the Jan. 6 committee who are among the few Republicans who have supported an investigation into the attack, shot back at Gingrich on Twitter.
“This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels,” said Cheney.
Kinzinger mocked Gingrich using a GIF of a red-faced Chris Farley from the movie “Billy Madison.”
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