Newt Gingrich says he knows why the media suggested he was either "insincere or insane" to predict a Donald Trump victory: A self-perpetuating "lack of understanding and imagination."
The former House Speaker who is in line for a top post in a Trump Administration clearly shares the President-elect's disdain for the media.
"The establishment’s self-reassuring assumption was that the American electorate was the same as it was in 2008 and 2012, only more so," said Gingrich in a post-election email. "This led them to believe that no Republican could win the presidency without doing dramatically better than Mitt Romney among the groups Romney lost badly—Latinos, African Americans, and women."
"They further assumed that Donald Trump could not possibly do better among these groups than Mitt Romney, because in their view, Romney was a pleasant, appealing candidate, and Trump was alienating and offensive."
He said those assumptions, bolstered by the belief that turnout among minorities and women would be high and white males low, was used to weight polls and produce results to prove their own conclusions and presume a historic defeat. He called that presumption a "house of cards."
In the email, Gingrich also cited an essay that branded the country as "run by an alliance of incumbent politicians, media pundits, lobbyists and other powerful money interests for their own gain at the expense of the American people."
Gingrich has been mentioned as either chief of staff or perhaps even Secretary of State.
