Senator John McCain (R-AZ) slammed Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s moon base promise Friday. While campaigning for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in Florida, Mr. McCain also posited that Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) would be a good vice presidential running mate for the Bain Capital co-founder.
“I think we ought to send Newt Gingrich to the moon and Mitt Romney to the White House,” Mr. McCain said, according to CBS News.
During a campaign stop along Florida’s “space coast” Wednesday, Mr. Gingrich made a promise that may be hard to keep if he becomes president of the United States.
“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” Mr. Gingrich said, according to Reuters.
Mr. Gingrich’s moon base promise was slammed by multiple candidates at CNN’s Republican presidential debate Thursday night.
“To go out there and promise new programs and big ideas, that’s a great thing to maybe get votes, but it’s not a responsible thing when you have to go out and say that we have to start cutting programs, not talking about how to [...] grow them,” Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum said.
Mr. Romney also slammed the Georgia Republican at the Republican debate for his moon base promise. “If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say, ‘You’re fired,’ Mr. Romney posited.
While campaigning for Mr. Romney, Mr. McCain also summarized the current state of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. “I think it’s very likely that it’s a two-person race,” the Arizona Senator said.
Mr. McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential race to President Barack Obama, also slammed Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX). “I think it’s pretty clear that Ron Paul has reached a ceiling as he did in 2008,” Mr. McCain said.