Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) slammed Vice President Harris’s performance at the ABC News debate versus former President Trump, claiming she acted like a “spoiled teenager.”
Gingrich, in a Fox News op-ed published on Saturday, repeatedly slammed the debate moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, political “elites” and argued Harris “failed to achieve her objectives.”
“Harris further hurt herself by spending a large part of her listening time making faces and looking cute,” Gingrich wrote in the op-ed. “It was the behavior of a spoiled teenager, not a commander-in-chief.”
“The elites value style over substance,” he continued. “They would like everyone to behave as though they were at a Washington cocktail party. Most Americans are not so highfalutin. Most Americans do not appreciate well-dressed, clever people treating them as if they are ignorant and incapable of realizing when they are being manipulated and lied to.”
The former speaker said that political “elites” misread what happened at the ABC News debate Tuesday night because they prioritized “style” over “substance.”
“The fact is, authenticity beats wearing a mask,” he wrote. “Being yourself beats trying to be the person your consultants have trained you to be. This has always been true in American politics.”
The Georgia Republican wrote that Trump’s “authenticity” and “substance” outperformed Harris’s “dishonesty and overtrained style.”
Shortly following the debate, during which Harris sparred with the ex-president on a number of issues, a CNN flash poll found that 63 percent of registered voters said the Democratic nominee was victorious on Tuesday night. A Morning Consult post-debate poll found Harris’s lead widening to a 5-point gap.
“The simple fact is: Vice President Harris can’t tell the truth, because an honest admission of her beliefs – and the failures of the last three-and-a-half years – would doom her campaign,” Gingrich wrote.
“So, we had a debate between the privileged, protected elitist Princess of the Left and a down-to-earth guy who people understand,” he said.
The Hill has reached out to Harris’s campaign for comment.
