http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/newt-gingrich-trump-drain-the-swamp/
(CNN)"Drain the swamp" was a refrain of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, but Newt Gingrich says the president-elect "doesn't want to use it anymore" now that he's knee-deep in alligators.
"I'm told he now just disclaims that. He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore," Gingrich, who informally advises Trump,
said Wednesday on NPR's "Morning Edition."
The former House Speaker said that he had "written what I thought was a very cute tweet about 'the alligators are complaining,'" but that "somebody wrote back and said they were tired of hearing this stuff."
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to "drain the swamp" -- leading chants of the phrase at his rallies -- part of an anti-establishment, anti-Washington message that was predicated on rooting out corruption and bringing an outsider's perspective to government.
But since the election, the phrase has been turned against Trump with biting irony.
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Critics have used it to assail Trump's high-level appointments of Wall Street and DC veterans, like former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Ron Klain, a former Obama administration official, tweeted, "Sure, Drain the Swamp. Congrats to all you outsiders who thought that Hillary Clinton was too establishment."
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http://www.salon.com/2016/12/21/newt-gingrich-donald-trumps-drain-the-swamp-promise-was-cute-but-he-doesnt-want-to-use-it-anymore/
Wednesday, Dec 21, 2016 5:20 PM UTC
Newt Gingrich: Donald Trump’s “drain the swamp” promise was “cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore”
Like so many of his other promises, Trump plans on breaking his famous pledge to "drain the swamp"
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Newt Gingrich (Credit: AP/Dennis Van Tine)
For the second time this week, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has basically said that you shouldn’t take Donald Trump’s pledges seriously.
Days after basically saying Trump’s White House is going to be an
ethics-free zone, Gingrich admitted that Trump has told him that he isn’t going to “drain the swamp,” even though it one of the most famous promises of his campaign.
“I’m told he now just disclaims that,”
Gingrich told NPR’s Rachel Martin on Wednesday morning. “He now says it was cute, but he doesn’t want to use it anymore.”
Gingrich later added, “I’d written what I thought was a very cute tweet about ‘the alligators are complaining,’ and somebody wrote back and said they were tired of hearing this stuff.”
In addition to being criticized for staffing his administration with billionaires and insiders despite promising to “drain the swamp,” Trump has also expressed willingness to
break his campaign promises to build a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, repeal the Affordable Care Act right away upon taking office, and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton.
