FOX News contributor Newt Gingrich defended a possible U.S. attack on Iran in an interview with FOX News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. Gingrich said if Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is taken out, then the Iranian people “will take over the country” and become a peaceful ally. “If you don’t want a nuclear Iran and you’ve got to stop the Mullahs because as long as they are there, there’s going to be a nuclear Iran, and [President Donald Trump] is prepared to do whatever it takes to stop them. This will not be a forever war. This will be a brief, brutal, direct use of American power to end the regime and end the threat and make both the world and the Middle East safer.” “If we finish crushing the Revolutionary Guard, my hunch is that the army will side with the people and they will take over the country, liberated and move towards a prosperous, peaceful Iran that we can live with,” Gingrich said.

SEAN HANNITY: Here with Reaction, Fox News contributor, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. It’s obvious, I mean, in so many ways he’s given them every opportunity to peacefully get out of what is their own demise and destruction. Can you believe in such a short period of time the Israelis dominate the airwaves, the skies of Iran, in such a short period of time? I mean, they could deliver one devastating blow after another. The question is, this one facility, the Fordow facility, and whether or not the United States will take them out with bunker busters. Your thoughts tonight. NEWT GINGRICH: Well, when historians look back and say, did Donald Trump really make a difference? Think about this. The original Ayatollah Khomeini first started calling us the Great Satan in 1978. Iranian mobs began chanting death to America in 1979 when they seized illegally the American embassy. They have been taunting us, attacking us, harassing us all these years through all these presidents. And finally, they have collided with Donald J. Trump and he’s crossed the line. He and Netanyahu are partners, much like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were partners. And the two of them are going to change history decisively. I believe they’re going to break the mullahs and the regime, create a new Iran, which will in a decade be dramatically more prosperous, be a neighbor, be accepted, be part of the region. This would not have happened with anyone except Donald J. Trump. It’s obvious. This guy has the guts. He has the understanding. He actually follows the logic. If you don’t want a nuclear Iran, then you’ve got to stop the mullahs, because as long as they’re there, there’s going to be a nuclear Iran. And he’s prepared to do whatever it takes to stop them. This will not be a forever war. This will be a brief, brutal, direct use of American power to end the regime and end the threat and make both the world and the Middle East safer. SEAN HANNITY: You know, I’m trying to understand. Now, I showed the polls the overwhelming number of Americans, Democrats, Republicans, independents support the president. I mean, the poll with Robert Kihaly and Matt Towery in particular, we can put it up and we can find it, you know, asked a very pointed question, by any means necessary. And 75% of respondents said, yeah, Donald Trump should use any means necessary to take it out. And, you know, what’s amazing to me is people talk about, you know, Donald Trump wanting a forever war. Well, he didn’t have a forever war when he took out Soleimani or Baghdadi and associates didn’t have a forever war when he beat the ISIS caliphate. He just kicked the living hell out of him, won and turned around and went home. And in this case, it would be take out the Fordow nuclear site and from that point on, protect our assets in the region and let the Israelis do whatever they need to do, considering they’ve been the victim of the vast majority of those missiles being fired into their country by Iran and by their proxies. NEWT GINGRICH: Look, if we finish crushing the Revolutionary Guard, my hunch is that the army will side with the people and they will take over the country, liberate it and move towards a prosperous, peaceful Iran that we can live with. And there are an enormous number of Iranian Americans who are very successful, who are prepared to go back and help rebuild their country once the dictatorship is gone. But nobody should kid themselves. This is a decisive moment in world history. This is going to change not just the region. But, you know, what happened was the American people since 1978 have had these people chanting death to America. They watch missiles hitting Tel Aviv and the average American says to themselves, if any one of those missiles had been nuclear, the entire city would have been annihilated and a million people would be dead. Now, at that point, you say to yourself, are you prepared to take the risk of allowing these madmen to get nuclear weapons? Yes, and as you saw in the polling data, Democrats, independents, Republicans all came back and said, no, this is the moment. Get rid of them. And luckily for us, we have in President Trump somebody with the guts, the toughness and the determination to actually follow through. SEAN HANNITY: Let me get your final comment. I only have less than a minute. Donald Trump puts on social media warning the people in Tehran to leave. And not only are they leaving, they are leaving in massive, massive numbers. You can’t even get out of there fast enough. Pretty amazing sight, isn’t it? NEWT GINGRICH: It is a moment that is going to change history, not only in Iran, but the message to Putin, the message to Xi Jinping, the message to every would-be aggressor in the world is there is a new sheriff in town and he is serious.

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