Trump fanboy Newt Gingrich thinks that the best way to root out terrorists and potential terrorists in the U.S. is to take us back to the days of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, and create a new House Un-American Activities Committee. Speaking on Fox & Friends (because of course), he said: We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here. Pssst Newt it was Nazis and communists, and then they went solely after suspected communists for decades after that, often ruining innocent people s lives in the process.The House Un-American Activities Committee was possibly the most un-American government body ever dreamed up. They relentlessly went after anyone in the general population they suspected of being a communist, or of having communist ties, issued subpoenas to those people, and then grilled them for hours on end. They asked about a  suspect s  political beliefs and activities, and to give them the names of others who might have been involved in subversive activities.Failure to comply meant getting sent to prison for contempt of Congress. Victims of the committee would also lose their jobs, and their employers would blacklist them, making it impossible for them to get another job once they were out of prison.In short, the House Un-American Activities Committee was engaged in a decades-long witch hunt.And that is what Newt Gingrich wants to bring back. Oh, sure, it s all for the safety of the country, so nobody should really object, right? Wrong. He d change his tune real quick if he were pulled in front of just such a committee and then saw his life ruined for it. Watch his interview below, via Media Matters for America:Featured image by Win McNamee/Getty Images