As he worked to unleash the Republican Revolution, Newt Gingrich famously crafted a lexicon to disparage Democrats. Among his favorite 1990s buzzwords: corrupt, pathetic, and sick. With C-SPAN cameras newly installed in the House, he spoke to an empty chamber, believing his words would find an audience of conservatives who wanted to “speak like Newt.” He packaged this new vocabulary in a memo titled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” and he baited Democratic leaders as pro-communist, un-American traitors in business suits.

But three decades after storming into Congress as a radical reactionary Speaker of the House, he has changed his tune—at least for a moment. With Democrats excelling in the midterms last month, Gingrich penned a column comparing Joe Biden with Republican greats Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.

And even before Raphael Warnock triumphed over Trump favorite Herschel Walker in his home state, Gingrich warned his party not to underestimate the Democrat in the White House.

“We pettily focus on his speaking difficulties, sometimes strange behavior, clear lapses of memory, and other personal flaws,” Gingrich wrote.