Perry Camp Does Damage Control

There was no “oops” moment in Saturday night’s debate, but Rick Perry’s campaign was doing damage control anyway. Early in the evening, Perry said all countries would start at “zero dollars” in foreign aid until they proved they were worthy of that aid. “Zero dollars—and then we’ll have a conversation,” Perry said. Things got a bit sticky for Perry when a question came in via Twitter about Israel and Perry insisted that country would have the same policy as everyone else. “Obviously, Israel is a special ally,” Perry said. “Why in the world would our federal government get a pass on sending their tax dollars to any country?” Before the debate even ended, Perry’s campaign sent out a press release saying that Perry is a friend to Israel and has received special commendation from that country.