Newsmax contributor and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., skewered Nikki Haley's campaign Tuesday night for showing liberal cable news network CNN's coverage of the New Hampshire presidential primary on a big screen at the campaign's watch party.
Jenn Pellegrino, co-host of Newsmax's coverage of the first-in-the-nation primary, asked co-host Rob Schmitt and guests Santorum and Mercedes Schlapp, "Is anybody surprised by this?"
"Unbelievably stupid," Santorum said. "I don't understand it."
"I would blame the consultants," Schlapp said.
"I saw that earlier in the evening, and I thought they must have made a mistake, they must have changed it," Santorum said. "Here it still is. This is the deliberate act of a of a candidate who does not know who her voter is because Republicans are not CNN watchers."
"She's been pandering to these people for a while now," Schmitt said. "That's her only lane, right?"
"It's pathetic," Santorum said. "It's malpractice is what it is to put CNN up there."
The exchanged happened shortly before former President Donald Trump was declared the winner of the primary by Decision Desk HQ. With 86% of the votes in, Trump led Haley 54.9% to 44.3%.
Newsmax reached out to Haley's campaign for comment.
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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