--- title: Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live description: The former House Speaker spoke live from Minneapolis in his latest live video canonical: https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/ author: Kirsten Salyer article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-28T20:58:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:07:46.176Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live og:description: He goes full stream-of-conscious—and it's glorious og:url: https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56fc60c78c7531f1/6988911d428a9eba4ccd26c5/newt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the keynote address during the Georgia Republican Party Victory Dinner in Macon, Georgia, on May 13, 2011. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live twitter:description: He goes full stream-of-conscious—and it's glorious twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56fc60c78c7531f1/6988911d428a9eba4ccd26c5/newt.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live  by [Kirsten Salyer](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer Apr 28, 2016 8:58 PM UTC  Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the keynote address during the Georgia Republican Party Victory Dinner in Macon, Georgia, on May 13, 2011. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the keynote address during the Georgia Republican Party Victory Dinner in Macon, Georgia, on May 13, 2011.Jessica McGowan—Getty Images  by [Kirsten Salyer](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer Apr 28, 2016 8:58 PM UTC At 4:04 p.m. Newt Gingrich [tweeted](https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/725777835953164290) that he was going on [Facebook Live](https://www.facebook.com/newtgingrich/videos/vb.19182454196/10154111359679197/?type=2&theater) in the most recent of what seems to be a running [series](https://www.facebook.com/newtgingrich/?fref=photo) of Facebook Live updates. By the time he finished talking at 4:25 p.m., the video was streaming to more than 1,000 viewers. In his close-up, the former House Speaker and presidential candidate touched upon a range of topics including his memories of THOMAS (a legislative website that he helped create and that the Library of Congress is [retiring](https://fcw.com/articles/2016/04/28/thomas-loc-retired.aspx) this summer), his thoughts on CSPAN, the topic of his next newsletter, Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech (which will be included as a link in his next newsletter) and Woodrow Wilson’s legacy. It was a laudable example of a politician taking advantage of new technology to connect with his fans. It was also a rambling, glorious example of how not to [take a selfie](http://motto.time.com/4205365/iphone-photos-how-to-take-better-2/) video. (NB: Not with the bottom half of your face missing.\*) After his monologue, he took questions, and compliments. “You are the reason I know how to use email. You used it on CSPAN,” he read from one commenter. “It is amazing how modern technology works,” Gingrich replied. Indeed. \* To be fair, Gingrich ended the stream with a promise to do a better job of holding the camera next time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/"},"headline":"Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live","datePublished":"2016-04-28T20:58:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:07:46.176Z","description":"He goes full stream-of-conscious—and it's glorious","url":"https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56fc60c78c7531f1/6988911d428a9eba4ccd26c5/newt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kirsten Salyer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56fc60c78c7531f1/6988911d428a9eba4ccd26c5/newt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the keynote address during the Georgia Republican Party Victory Dinner in Macon, Georgia, on May 13, 2011.","caption":"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the keynote address during the Georgia Republican Party Victory Dinner in Macon, Georgia, on May 13, 2011.","creditText":"Jessica McGowan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4311717/newt-gingrich-facebook-live/","name":"Newt Gingrich Is the Secret Master of Facebook Live"}}]}] ```