Texas Gov. Rick Perry is laughing off the viral video of a speech he gave in New Hampshire on Friday, saying the editing of a 20-plus minute speech made it look he was under the influence of alcohol or painkillers.
That apparently wasn’t the case. The event’s organizer said Perry had definitely not been drinking. Instead, Perry was getting laugh lines almost from the opening of the speech, which seemed to then heighten his own mood,
The Hill reported.
"It was a great crowd, a good response. I guess you can do anything you want with a video and make it look any way you want, but I felt good, felt great, and I think the message got across very well, so it was a good speech," said Perry to reporters Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa, according to The Hill.
"I would suspect that you're going to see [a Perry] very energized, very focused, talking about a 20 percent flat tax and being a very consistent conservative and not a conservative of convenience," responded Perry.
The video features clips of the GOP presidential candidate’s speech at the Cornerstone Action Awards Dinner that has since been viewed on YouTube more than 800,000 times and gained traction in the media this week for its exuberant depiction of Perry.
The eight-minute video shows Perry joking about how "cool" New Hampshire's state slogan is, making fun of rival Herman Cain's tax plan and giggling when presented with a bottle of maple syrup from the event's organizers.
Late-night comics and some news anchors have said Perry appeared drunk during the speech, and others have speculated he might have been on back-pain medications.
The host of the event, however, has denied that Perry had been drinking.
"I can tell you unequivocally he wasn’t drinking at the event and he hadn’t been drinking prior to the event," Kevin Smith, the executive director of Cornerstone Action, told The Hill.
You decide. First, the 8-minute edited version of the talk that has drawn so much ridicule.
Now, take a look at the entire speech: