Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) offered some harsh criticism for Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday, saying that she acted like a “spoiled teenager” during her debate with former President Donald Trump.
Gingrich shared his thoughts in a Fox News op-ed published on Saturday, also criticizing the moderators for the debate, David Muir and Linsey Davis.
Gingrich argued in his op-ed that they were political “elites” and that 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.”
He went on to say that Harris lacked “substance” in her debate performance and that the American people knew it.
“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 Georgia Republican said that on the contrary, Trump offers “authenticity” and “substance” compared to Harris’s “dishonesty and overtrained style.”
“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.”
A CNN flash poll from after the debate found that 63% of registered voters felt Harris won the night, though Gingrich said that throughout the debate, she didn’t tell the truth.
“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.”