Trump plan that was slammed as 'frankly absurd' finds an admirer in Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich slithered his way closer to Donald Trump’s campaign this week with a short-on-facts op-ed celebrating plans to “save American cities” by empowering cops.

Gingrich fawned over a problematic speech Trump gave in New Hampshire last weekend when he promised to “indemnify” police officers accused of brutality, or protect them from being sued — which is a policy legal experts told the New York Times is “frankly absurd.”

“This was an encouraging speech for our future and a real commitment to save America’s citizens,” writes Gingrich.

Gingrich puts the focus on New York — the city where Trump was born and where a lawsuit contending mass fraud threatens the future of his business empire, and where the former House speaker argues Democrats have been loath to accept the sound advice of well-meaning Republicans.

As proof, Gingrich points to policy from former Buffalo Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY), who pitched a “pro-city” plan for New York based on policy from Britain's conservative ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The plan called for allowing public housing residents to buy their homes, Gingrich explains. It parallels a British policy that saw middle-class families snap up public housing that resulted in rents skyrocketing for low-income tenants to manage the cost of the loss, the Guardian reports in an article entitled “the housing crisis that Thatcher built.”

Gingrich professes himself shocked that former Rep.Barney Frank (D-NY) opposed it.

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“It did not seem to occur to Frank that helping poor people become wealthy was a good idea,” Gingrich writes.

Yet the former speaker uses this anecdote to condemn Democrats who refuse to address the problems he says are “devastating” cities such as New York,

“With all the devastating news about urban crime, drug overdoses, illegal immigration, rampant homelessness, out-of-control budgets, and educational failures, it is encouraging that President Donald Trump has committed his next administration to saving America’s cities," he writes.

In New York’s case, this argument doesn’t quite reflect the facts.

Crime in New York City continues to drop steadily to levels nowhere near where they stood in the early 1990s. New York State has among the lowest rates of drug overdose mortality rates in the nation (the highest is West Virginia), according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. And New York’s public school system ranks seventh in the nation, according to analysis by U.S. News and World Report.

If you’re wondering how those numbers compare to Gingrich’s, it's impossible to say. He hasn’t provided any.

Instead, Gingrich casts blame.

“Those who are committed to union incompetence, leftwing extremism, and keeping power will fight against a program to save America’s cities,” Gingrich concludes.

“Most Americans, however, will be excited by the vision of a safe, prosperous, and forward-looking urban future.”