Video: Pat Buchanan Calls Newt Gingrich 'a Political Opportunist'
Matt Lewis
Columnist
Posted:
08/17/10
Fresh off his vacation, MSNBC's Pat Buchanan came out swinging Tuesday on "Morning Joe," calling former House Speaker Newt Gingrich a "political opportunist" for his comments about the proposed mosque in New York City.
On Monday, Gingrich compared the building of a proposed mosque near Ground Zero to Nazis putting up "a sign next to the Holocaust Museum" or "the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor."
Buchanan argued that Gingrich's controversial comments were meant to position him to the right of his potential GOP primary opponent, Sarah Palin, on the issue.
According to Buchanan,
Watch the video here:
On Monday, Gingrich compared the building of a proposed mosque near Ground Zero to Nazis putting up "a sign next to the Holocaust Museum" or "the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor."
Buchanan argued that Gingrich's controversial comments were meant to position him to the right of his potential GOP primary opponent, Sarah Palin, on the issue.
According to Buchanan,
Newt is a political opportunist. What Newt is doing is he's trying to get out and be more flamboyant and more charismatic, if you will, and more controversial than Sarah Palin, who is his primary challenger, if he gets into Iowa and New Hampshire.
She will take all his oxygen and a lot of his support. If she doesn't run, he wants to move into that opening, Joe, in my judgment, in the Republican primaries, and how do you get more attention than Sarah Palin, who's very good at this, is to go two steps further. I mean, I think bringing the Nazis into the argument is always absurd in American politics, because there is no valid comparison there. And secondly, you know, you bring that in, and that's all we start talking about. So I think Newt went too far with that comment. but I know why he's doing it.
Watch the video here: