"It was a little bit narrow-minded of Governor Romney to use that kind of attack," Gingrich told reporters when asked about the former Massachusetts governor's repeated assaults on Huntsman's time in Beijing.
In two debates barely 10 hours apart, Romney implied that Huntsman had betrayed Republicans by agreeing to serve as Democratic President Barack Obama's first envoy to China and suggested it made him unfit to seek the nomination.
"Governor Huntsman had lived for years in Asia, speaks fluent Chinese, is extraordinarily prepared to be the American ambassador to China and I suspect at that point he took it as a citizen" out of a sense of duty, said Gingrich.
"There are plenty of things that we can argue about without impugning the motives of somebody who has served this country at considerable personal inconvenience," said the former lawmaker.
Huntsman, who had offered a wobbly defense of his time in Beijing in a debate late Saturday, took the fight to Romney in a Sunday face-off, saying the millionaire venture capitalist had attacked him for "putting my country first" at a time when Romney was raising cash to run for his presidential campaign.
"He criticized me, while he was out raising money, for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. They're not asking what political affiliation the president is," he said.
"I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country: I will always put my country first," said Huntsman, a former governor of Utah and heir to his family's chemical fortune.
"I think we serve our country first by standing for people who believe in conservative principles and doing everything in our power to promote an agenda that does not include President Obama's agenda," countered Romney.
"I don't disrespect your decision to do that. I just think it's most likely that the person who should represent our party running against President Obama is not someone who called him a 'remarkable leader' and went to be his ambassador in China," he added.
"This nation is divided...because of attitudes like that," Huntsman shot back, winning applause from the audience attending the NBC television/Facebook-sponsored debate.
Gingrich's defense of Huntsman came as both trailed Romney in the hunt to be the Republican standard-bearer to take on Obama in the November elections, with precious little time to loosen his grip on the nomination.
In June 2011, Huntsman found himself on the defensive over leaked letters to Obama, including one from August 2009 in which he called the embattled Democratic president a "remarkable leader."
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f1c8d4ea77b5464caa752dda865ccb1b.1b1&show_article=1
next iron chef aquamarine iraq war iraq war jimmy fallon jimmy fallon barista
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.