Newt Gingrich challenged Mitt Romney to a debate over gas prices and energy policy this morning after faulting Romney for “hiding” from debates because he has the money to campaign without them.
“I don’t think that Romney can just hide behind millions of dollars of paid ads — he’s got to come out in the open,” Gingrich said this morning on Fox and Friends. “I don’t think the public is going to tolerate somebody like Romney raising all of his money on Wall Street and then turning around and saying he’s not going to debate. We owe it to the American people to continue having a series of opportunties that are unedited and aren’t just decided by big money.”
After suggesting that Romney doesn’t about energy policy because he’s “rich enough” not to worry about high gas prices, Gingrich challenged him to a debate. “I’m very happy to debate Romney,” the former House Speaker said. “Why doesn’t he come to Mississippi or Alabama next week? Let’s debate expensive gasoline versus inexpensive gasoline and effective energy policy versus whatever he has in mind — which I don’t know anything about, frankly.”
The Romney camp is happy without any more debates. “No more debates,” Ann Romney said before the Michigan primary. “If we’re doing a debate, [Mitt] is going to sit in the audience and watch me and that’ll be it.”
