Newt Gingrich told Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow on Saturday that if he had the votes in congress to reclaim the Speaker of the House position, he would accept.

Gingrich acknowledged that if he had 218 house members backing him as Speaker, who approved of his strategy on the continuing resolution, and his strategy on dealing with the debt ceiling, he would have a “moral obligation to serve the country.”

Gingrich, who served as Speaker in the 90’s during the Clinton Administration, initially made light of this provocative possibility by reminding listeners to Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM Patriot radio, channel 125, of the time when conservative icon William F. Buckley was asked while running for Mayor of New York: if he was elected, what would he do? Buckley said that the first thing he would do is demand a recount.

Later in the interview, the consummate historian side of Gingrich emerged. He waxed more philosophical, relating that George Washington never sought elected office, but when called upon to serve, he did so.

The architect of the “Contract with America” in 1994, which proposed ten policies the GOP promised to a vote on during the first hundred days of the new Congress, cautioned current house members to “slow down” when picking their next Speaker. Gingrich asserted that the House chamber must break down into lengthy conferences among themselves and vet candidates not on personality, but on their ability to articulate strategy.

The former Speaker asserted that House leadership needs to have a sound strategy on how to deal with the continuing resolution that comes up in December and the debt ceiling. “Unless they have a strategy in dealing with these kind of issues, they will just rapidly undermine the next speaker and be right back in the middle of a bitter internal fight that they don’t need,” he said.

Marlow asked Gingrich his position on funding Planned Parenthood and the possibility of a government shutdown. “I would have a hard time voting for a bill that funded it,” he replied. “Even if it meant a shutdown?” inquired Marlow. “Let me repeat myself. I would have a very hard time voting for a bill that funded Planned Parenthood,” Gingrich replied.

Gingrich said that Republicans have to make it clear that they are not defunding women’s health. “Here is the money, we are not defunding women’s health,” needs to be expressed. He recommends that congress apply the exact same dollars for women’s health to other organizations, including religious groups, but not to be complicit in “ a process that cuts up babies. We should say how can the president of the Unites States defend cutting up babies, and if Obama wants to close the government over his commitment to cutting up babies, then I would say let’s have the fight.”

Regarding immigration, Gingrich told Marlow that he just came back from Israel. “You can’t spend time in Israel and not believe that fences work. People who say you can’t build a fence are just wrong,” he maintains. He added that Trump is right on this, and that building 95-story sky-scrapers is more complicated than building fences.

The ten time re-elected congressman from Georgia stressed that there must be a strong e-verify network in place, but it would be implausible to round up and deport all who came across American borders illegally. “We are not going to deport 11 million people. We are not going to go into neighborhoods, we’re not going to tear up churches, not going to tear up families. No American system could tolerate that level of personal and dehumanizing process.”

Gingrich does think, however, that America could aggressively deport criminals. “People in neighborhoods would be grateful that you got rid of the criminals,” he insisted. “MS13 Gang from El Salvador, which is now in 70 cities, should be utterly, totally unacceptable to every American.”

The conservative icon added that he finds that when he meets with legal immigrants across the nation, they are the “strongest supporters of insisting on legality. Because they paid their dues; they did the right things. They followed the law. They would like to see an America insisting on returning to that.”

Gingrich maintains there should be a “pathway to legality,” but rejects offering them citizenship before those “waiting patiently” who apply legally. There could be exceptions for some who would enter the military. If one is willing to “risk their lives” for America, extenuating circumstances may apply in that case, Gingrich believes.

Gingrich has a new novel being released on Oct. 13 called Duplicity. His website is gingrichproductions.com.

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot radio, channel 125 on Saturday from 10-1:00 pm. ET.. Breitbart News Sunday airs from 7-10 pm ET.