Newt Gingrich: Dems Playing a 'Very Weak Hand' With Impeachment Report

The House Intelligence Committee's report on its evidence that will be used in an impeachment case against President Donald Trump shows Democrats are playing a "very weak hand," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday afternoon.

"They haven't made their case to the American people," Gingrich told Fox News' Dana Perino, adding that adding further elements to the case won't improve it, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will still be forced to move forward with a call for an impeachment vote.

"I think she will be forced to vote on impeachment and my guess is she can muscle the votes, but she does have 31 Democrats in Trump districts and that is twice as many as you would need to defeat it, so I don't know that it's an automatic slam-dunk," said Gingrich.

And it doesn't happen, "her party would explode," said Gingrich. "The truth is, hatred of Trump on the left, it's almost pathological. She has to go through with the vote. Even if she loses it. Frankly, any Democrat who votes no is facing the very real prospect of a primary fight from the left. Trump in a bizarre way now has them in a position where they have a very hard job."

The case is now up to the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Jerrold Nadler won't do a good job, said Gingrich, and once the case heads to the Senate, that will put Republicans in charge.

"We don't know exactly right now what their reaction will be," Gingrich said. "They could easily start with hearings in the Judiciary Committee, bringing in Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and Adam Schiff himself. This could be a total mess by sometime in January."

He added that he thinks House Republicans did a "remarkably good job" releasing their rebuttal on Monday, before Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff could release his own report Tuesday afternoon.

"I think he has seen not a single Republican in the House or Senate who have indicated they are going along with the president," said Gingrich. "That's a pretty unified position."