Rick Perry Flops Again on Three Departments He’d Cut
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(BLUFFTON, S.C.) — When asked to name and provide the number of federal departments he’d eliminate as president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry managed to list three, but they weren’t the three agencies he consistently names on the stump or that he attempted to name when he committed his now infamous “oops” moment.
“Three right off the bat, you know, commerce, interior and energy are three that you think,” Perry said during a radio interview with Bill Edwards on WTKS Radio in Savannah, Ga.
Perry made no mention of the Department of Education, one of the agencies he consistently rails against on the campaign trail, until Edwards asked Perry later in the interview if he’d eliminate that department as well.
“They are blackmailing states with our own money, basically saying here is the national test, and here are the national standards you’re going to put into place,” Perry said. “One size fits all doesn’t work. Well maybe it does in gym socks but it sure doesn’t in how we educate our children.”
Asked if Perry meant to include the Department of Interior in his list, Mark Miner, spokesman for Perry, told reporters: “It shouldn’t be surprising the governor is talking about another federal agency that needs to be looked at and cut.”
During a November CNBC debate in Rochester, Mich., Perry committed the now famous gaffe where he forgot the third agency he’d eliminate as president.
“I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see,” Perry said in November.
“Commerce and, let’s see,” he said trying to think of the third agency. “I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio