Christine O’Donnell recently gave Mitt Romney her endorsement. | AP Photos O'Donnell: I like Mitt's flip

Talk about a backhanded compliment.

Christine O’Donnell, who has endorsed Mitt Romney, appeared on CNN Wednesday and inadvertently drew attention to one of the charges against the former Massachusetts governor from his critics — flip-flopping.


“That’s one of the things that I like about him — because he’s been consistent since he changed his mind,” O’Donnell said.

She said Romney is “humble enough” to admit he doesn’t always have the right answers and is open to making the “necessary changes” to his own view points sometimes, but maintained that he never betrays his core convictions.

O’Donnell, who had the backing of the tea partiers in the 2010 when she ran unsuccessfully for Senate in Delaware, also had a strong warning for members of the conservative movement: Don’t choose Newt Gingrich, no matter what.

“People are trying to paint Newt Gingrich as the anti-establishment candidate, which I think is funny because in a lot of the tea party vs. establishment campaigns in 2010, Newt Gingrich was on the side of the establishment,” said O’Donnell. “The tea party I don’t think should be behind Newt at all.”

Adding that she loves some of the other GOP candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, O’Donnell pressed tea partiers to stop “flocking behind Gingrich.”

“Newt Gingrich has been inconsistent and unreliable, all the way down from cozying up on the couch with Nancy Pelosi to getting behind relentless Dede Scozzafava in New York 23,” she said. “If you want to get behind Michele Bachmann, you want [to] get behind Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, instead of Romney, OK. I can understand that. But not Newt Gingrich.”

Following O’Donnell endorsement, Romney’s campaign released a statement Tuesday, calling O’Donnell a “leader in the conservative movement” who “recognizes that excessive government threatens us now and threatens future generations.”