Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said fellow contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Perry made him feel "very uncomfortable" with their heated verbal squabbles during the last GOP debate.
"Once or twice last night the level of intensity, particularly between Romney and Perry got to be almost like seventh-graders at a schoolyard," Gingrich said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s "Hannity."
Gingrich also noted that Herman Cain, who has recently risen to front-runner status, faced more "civil" questions during the debate than did Romney or Perry.
Gingrich has distanced himself from the attacks on fellow GOP candidates during past debates, and issued a warning during Tuesday night's debate about the intra-party bickering, saying: "Maximizing bickering is probably not the road to the White House."
The potential nominee could "get beaten by the President because we’ve beaten each other up so much," Gingrich told Hannity. "The goal of this project isn’t to have one ego or ambition over another. ... The goal of this effort is to defeat Barack Obama and get America back on the right track."
Gingrich has seen a bump in the polls recently, but still trails Cain, Romney and Perry. He told Hannity he is optimistic that his campaign efforts are growing.
"In the last four days we raised more money than we raised in all of July," he said. "We will presently have offices in South Carolina, New Hampshire and in Iowa in the next few days. You’re going to see a full-blown campaign [of] the kind I’ve always wanted to run, and I think we’re beginning to get our rhythm."
