After witnessing six years of Barack Obama's presidency, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he does not believe American voters "will want to take a chance" by putting another senator in the White House.
Speaking to reporters after lunch with business leaders in Nashua, New Hampshire, this week, Perry — who is weighing a presidential bid of his own — said voters want someone with executive experience.
He declined to say whether three sitting Republican senators who have announced for the White House — Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — are qualified to serve as president,
Time reports.
"These are really bright, capable individuals," Perry said. "But my point is, do you want to take a chance on someone who doesn't have a track record of being an executive. When you walk off the Senate floor, you walk off the Senate floor. You don't walk away from things when you are governor, you have to deal with things."
Perry likened electing a senator president to taking a trans-Atlantic flight with a pilot who can explain aerodynamics but has just 150 hours of flight time.
"Or do you want to be with that grizzled old 20,000-hour captain who has taken that airplane back and forth thousands of times safely?" Perry asked.
The choice, he said, is between "a young, inexperienced United States senator versus a skilled, experienced executive."
Perry retired in January after serving 14 years and one month as governor of Texas — a tenure
longer than all but nine governors in U.S. history.
"If you're in the Senate or if you're in the House, you can give a speech and then go home," Perry told Breitbart
in an interview published in November.
"Governors can't. We have to govern."
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