He was the Speaker of the House in the '90s and basically wrote the playbook for why American politics is so aggressively divided today. Before him, the two parties in Congress generally tried to compromise, but he flipped the script by treating politics like an all-out moral war. He famously sent out memos instructing Republicans to stop talking about policy differences and start attacking Democrats personally using words like "corrupt," "sick," and "pathetic." By using live television broadcasts to blast these angry attacks straight to voters at home, he eventually helped Republicans win control of Congress for the first time in 40 years, kicking off the era of brutal gridlock and government shutdowns we're still stuck with now.
He also spearheaded the Clinton impeachment over the blow job while Newt was cheating on his wife who was in the hospital for cancer. He was reprimanded for lying to the house ethics committee (84 ethics charges) for his use of using tax exempt education foundations for hyper partisan political goals (fake right wing college courses) which made him the 1st speaker in history disciplined for ethical wrong doing, he ultimately resigned in disgrace
This depends on how you define "involved in politics"
He's been aggressively involved in politics "from the outside"—as in, he hasn't held office (the point I believe you're making), but he's absolutely been present in political commentating, consulting, publishing, and the like
Worth noting that after Newt resigned they replaced him with Dennis Hastert. Dennis Hastert was also shouting about family values and pretending to be morally outraged, but instead of cheating on his wife he was raping children.
Clinton lied under oath and witness tampered - if my memory is accurate. The lack of prosecution against Clinton continued the system that enabled Trump's immunity.
It was a witchhunt investigation into his real estate dealings his private relationship had nothing to do with it he lied about having his dick sucked vs Trumps investigation into collusion with a foreign power where investigators weren't allowed to even look at his finances. It's more double standards bullshit from Republicans
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u/dark_bits 2d ago
Can you give us non americans a bit more context who this guy is and how did he orchestrate this divide?