Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he's in the long game for the race to the White House and isn't worried that he just missed the cutoff for the main GOP debate last Thursday.
While Perry would like his impressive showing to get him into the top 10 for the next debate on CNN in September, he said he's focusing instead on wooing voters in early primary states.
"Debates are important, but there is nothing that's more important than sitting in a town hall meeting or in a roping arena as I was last night in Iowa falls, Iowa, talking to the people," he said Sunday on ABC's
"This Week."
"Back in '07, Rudy Giuliani led the polls for almost a year, he and Fred Thompson," Perry said. "There was some celebrity going on there. We may be seeing a bit of that right now."
That was a reference to frontrunner Donald Trump who is getting all the ink – and all the airtime.
Perry has been more muted on Trump of late, though he did call the billionaire businessman out a few weeks ago when he drew fire for saying Arizona Sen. John McCain wasn't a war hero.
"I'm going to call out Mr. Trump or anybody else for offending young people giving up their lives for us. It's not a political game with me," Perry said.
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