Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) slammed Vice President Harris' performance during the ABC News debate with former President Trump, claiming she acted like a “spoiled teenager.”
Gingrich wrote in a Fox News op-ed: Published On Saturday, Ms Harris repeatedly criticised the debate's moderators, political “elites” David Muir and Lindsay Davis, claiming that Ms Harris had “failed to achieve her objective”.
“Harris only further hurt herself by spending much of the listening session trying to appear cute with her facial expressions,” Gingrich said in the op-ed. “That was the behavior of a spoiled teenager, not a commander in chief.”
“The elites care about style over substance,” he continued. “They want everyone to act as if they're at a Washington cocktail party. Most Americans aren't that highbrow. Most Americans don't like being treated like well-dressed, smart people are ignorant and don't realize they're being manipulated and lied to.”
The former speaker said he misunderstood what happened at Tuesday night's ABC News debate because political “elites” prioritized “style” over “substance.”
“The reality is that authenticity is more important than wearing a mask,” he writes. “Being yourself is more important than trying to become someone a consultant has trained you to be. This has always been true in American politics.”
The Georgia Republican wrote that Trump's “sincerity” and “substance” outweighed Harris' “disingenuousness and over-rehearsed style.”
Immediately after the debate, in which Harris sparred with the former president on a number of issues, a CNN poll showed that 63% of registered voters said as of Tuesday night that the Democratic candidate had won. A Morning Consult poll after the debate showed Harris' lead widening to five points.
“The simple fact is that VP Harris cannot tell the truth because an honest admission of her beliefs, and the failures of the past three and a half years, would doom her campaign,” Gingrich wrote.
“So what we had was a debate between a left-wing elite princess with privileges and protection and a practical guy who people can understand,” he said.
The Hill has reached out to Harris' campaign for comment.
