Gingrich: 'Never Trump' Republicans 'whiny, sniveling negative cowards'

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Newt Gingrich on President-elect Trump's calls for unity

Former House speaker reacts to election results on 'Hannity'

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich slammed Republicans who refused to back Donald Trump during the general election as "whiny, sniveling negative cowards" Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after Trump was elected president.

"[A] Donald Trump [administration is] going to be among the most extraordinary, creative, inventive, exciting periods in all of American political history," Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity on "Hannity". "Let [the 'Never Trump' movement] drift off into the ashbin of history while we go ahead and work with Donald Trump and with the House and Senate Republicans to create a dramatically new future."

A number of Republican officials, including Senators Ben Sasse and Mike Lee, refused to back the real estate mogul for president, citing concerns about his temperament and past indiscretions.

Gingrich also warned that some GOP lawmakers would try to sidetrack Trump's agenda in Congress.

"Their technique will be to say ‘Oh, be reasonable. Don’t push too hard. Don’t force the issue. Find a compromise with Democrats. Maybe he shouldn’t name one of the [potential Supreme Court] justices who are conservative who’s on his list. Maybe he should find a nice moderate acceptable to the Democrats,'" said Gingrich. "Down that road is a disaster. And so we have to be aware that the danger is not that they’re going to actively fight. The danger is that they’re going to opt for honeyed words of subversion."

Gingrich identified border security and infrastructure as two issues that were likely to be the first priority of a Trump administration.

"I would suggest," he said, "that a really dramatic infrastructure program will get at least half the Democrats to sign up for it and be exactly in the job-creating direction that Donald Trump has talked about for a year-and-a-half.