Newt Gingrich predicts electoral 'tsunami' in 2022 with Republicans gaining 40-70 House seats

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the architect of a GOP takeover a quarter century ago, is predicting that Republicans are headed for an electoral "tsunami" in 2022 that could flip four U.S. Senate seats and as many as 70 House seats to Republican control.

In an interview with Just the News, Gingrich said Wednesday he believes voters spoke with an unambiguous voice that the country has shifted too far left on everything from education and the economy to policing and security but President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are too weak and too woke to adjust their party's strategy.

"What you're faced with, in Biden, is somebody who clearly doesn't have the mental energy to maneuver," he told the John Solomon Reports podcast. "I mean, both Clinton and Obama were very good politicians. They're both very smart. And they had the capacity to maneuver.

"Kamala is so far to the left, and so dumb, that she can't possibly be helpful here," he added. "And at the same time, every evidence we have is that President Biden is simply out of it, that he doesn't understand this stuff. And a guy who falls asleep at an international conference, is probably not the guy who's going lead you out of the wilderness."

Asked to assess the GOP's chances in the 2022 election, Gingrich offered a bold prediction.

"My personal projection is plus four in the Senate, and probably between 40 and 70 [seats] in the House," he said. "I think it will be a tsunami, because [the Democrats] can't get out of who they are."

Biden addressed criticisms Wednesday that his administration's bumpy start was to blame for Tuesday's election thumping, saying he was committed to passing his mammoth infrastructure and social welfare spending plans. Harris said she believes Republican Glenn Youngkin, Virginia's new governor-elect, won in a fair election and deserved congratulations.

Gingrich said Republicans seeking to run in 2022 should study Youngkin's acceptance speech in the wee hours of Wednesday morning for the sort of messaging that appeals to the GOP base plus independents and eventually develop a new platform modeled after his own 1994 Contract with America.

"I recommend everybody listen to Youngkin's acceptance speech, when he really outlined a very positive vision of what they're going to do starting on day one," he said. "That's what we need. ... I think I would recommend that Republicans at every level, spend March and April in town hall meeting listening to the American people. And then from that develop a new contract that we can't tell you today what it would be because we owe to the American people to listen to them first."

He added Republicans must relentlessly define the Biden Democrat agenda as "big government socialism," something he said his own polling shows is deeply unpopular.

"We have to do to the American left what Margaret Thatcher did to the British socialists, which was basically eliminate them," he said. "They haven't been competitive in 40 years because of the work she did. We need to have the same thing."