Sen. Bernie Sanders is like a "drunk uncle" who believes his own arguments, no matter how "insane" they might sound, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday while lambasting the Democrats' often-contentious South Carolina debate.
"This may be a sign of my age or conservatism, but when I watched Bernie I think of [a] drunk uncle," Gingrich told Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo. "He comes down at 11 in the morning, talking at the kitchen table. He sincerely believes everything he is saying, even if it is insane."
Sanders, I-Vt., has "this thing" down, Gingrich added, as he says "Cuba is OK, Venezuela is OK. All of these things are really terrific. The Soviet Union was a great place to vacation, to honeymoon. I do believe he is authentic; he really believes it."
Gingrich added that overall, he couldn't believe "how childish, how pathetic" the presidential candidates were acting while on stage, and he thinks their behavior "shrinks the entire Democratic Party."
"I think it was the most amazing debate I have watched in my entire career," he said. "You go back to the original debates of Kennedy and Nixon, how civil they were, how orderly they were. [When] you watched last night, as people piled on, it was like watching seventh graders pile on each other in a way that had no relationship to somebody that wants to be commander in chief and president of the United States."
Gingrich said he does think former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's performance was "dramatically better" than it was in the Las Vegas debate. However, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was "as usual, angry at everybody," and Pete Buttigieg "looked younger and less presidential last night."
Former Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, "looked almost awake," he said. "It was a magic moment."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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