Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says CNN tried to embarrass Republicans by turning Wednesday's GOP debate into one big food fight.
"I didn't know whether I was watching a Republican debate or the Jerry Springer show," DeLay said Thusrday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"The format was just outrageous as far as I'm concerned. CNN just dropped the ball completely.
"What they did, the whole show, was a big gotcha show trying to embarrass Republicans, getting into food fights. It was just awful."
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And those "food fights," Delay said, were orchestrated by moderator Jake Tapper.
"The American people are trying to decide on who's going to be president of the United States, for goodness sakes, and we're up there throwing mud at each other, egged on by Jake Tapper, who is nothing but a liberal hack anyway," he said.
"They were looking for a fight and they got it. And they ignored people. [former Arkansas Gov. Mike] Huckabee was ignored, [Texas Sen. Ted] Cruz was ignored, [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott [Walker] was ignored.
"You had to fight just to get on the microphone. It was just outrageous. Their responsibility is to bring policies and visions out of these people, bring out their record so the American people can compare them and make a decision. That was so irresponsible."
Asked by Malzberg who he believed did best during the three-hour debate, DeLay, a Texas Republican, said:
"[Former Hewlett-Packard CEO] Carly Fiorina did very, very well. It showed her grasp of the issues. I loved it when she stood up about Planned Parenthood and talked about how defunding Planned Parenthood is about the character of this nation. It showed me a lot about her.
"Cruz's comments on Iran and the Iran deal was very good. I thought Huckabee was excellent. Frankly, it was a bad night for [Donald] Trump … some of the people bringing up policy made him look very weak. He looked like a car salesman without a car to sell."