Former GOP White House contender Jon Huntsman on Monday explained the comparison he made between the Republican Party and Communist Party of China the night before as “waxing philosophical” on the state of politics.
On Sunday night Huntsman equated being dis-invited by the Republican Party from a Florida fundraiser in March after he floated the idea of a third party to “what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script,” according to political blog BuzzFeed.
On Monday, the former Utah governor, who served as U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, blamed blogs for taking a sentence out of context but repeated the sentiment.
“Last night I said, you know if you’re not on script and you get knocked out of an event like that the party’s supposed to be big tent, you’re supposed to bring in all ideas and I said, I thought for a moment about what they do in China if you’re off script. The party, they knock you out,” Huntsman said on MSNBC. “We shouldn’t be doing that here. We should be accommodating all voices.”
He also called on the Republican Party to provide bold solutions to the American people, adding that a failure to do so could result in an “alternative voice or a separate angle of attack that’s going to knock it down,” an apparent reference to a third party.
Huntsman suspended his presidential bid in January after a third place finish in the New Hampshire primary and endorsed front runner Mitt Romney for the nomination.
“This is a time to go big and go bold and go visionary,” Huntsman said. “The people of this country are waiting for it and the world is waiting for it too, we have a huge opening.”
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