On Sunday’s “State of the Union” on CNN, following former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s defeat in the Nevada primary on Saturday, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey said Gingrich’s campaign has become less of a campaign and more of a vendetta.
“I don’t think it’s helpful even to Newt,” said Armey, who is now chairman of activist organization FreedomWorks. “I feel bad for him. I think he’s digressed into a state of taking a second-rate campaign and turning it into a first-rate vendetta. And I think he’s putting himself out of the game because he can’t get over his obsession about his own hurt feelings over the campaign in Iowa. He needs to get beyond that and get to the nation’s people’s business if he expects to have any chance whatsoever. I thought that last night was really sad for him, and quite frankly, again, so much of Newt’s whole life is overstated. He overstates the case is in a hyperbolic fashion it just looks vindictive.”
Armey and Gingrich had a history of sometimes disagreeing, and Armey was allegedly part of a failed coup to replace Gingrich in his leadership role in the 1990s. Despite that history, Armey stood by his critique.
“Well, we worked well together during the time we worked together,” Armey said. “But you know I’m sure we both had disappointments in one another. But I think right now the question is, is Newt going to have an effective campaign that presents the best of his ideas for America, or is he just going to have a constant patter of attacking Romney?”