Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich argued Sunday that Mitt Romney’s speech last week warning GOP voters against Donald Trump damaged Romney more than it hurt Trump.
The attack “probably damaged Trump a little bit but damaged Romney a lot more,” Gingrich said on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News.
Romney used a barrage of negative ads to defeat Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman who helped devise the “Contract With America” credited with helping the GOP caputre control of the House in 1994, in the 2012 right for the Republican primary. Gingrich may remain irked by Romney’s tactics.
Gingrich argued Romney looked contradictory and hypocritical in his speech in Utah on Thursday where he blasted Trump as a “conman.”
“I was with Romney and Trump in Las Vegas in 2012 when Trump endorsed Romney, and Romney was effusive in his praise of Trump. He said Trump was more successful than he was, said Trump was a better businessman than he was, talked about Trump as a great job creator,” Gingrich said.
“You look at that tape and then it’s almost embarrassing then to look at then speech this week, which was just over the top,” Gingrich said.
“It’s perfectly fine for Mitt to say he doesn’t think Trump should be president but his speech was over the top and hurt Mitt more than it hurt Trump,” Gingrich said.
“I think Trump is helped because for a very large number of Republicans, maybe as many as 40 percent of the whole party, there’s this sense of that establishment has betrayed them,” Gingrich said. “This is not a party which wants the failed candidate from the last election to get up and lecture them on what to do.”
