Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he "felt great" during the speech he gave Friday that turned into a viral video online and brought negative attention to the presidential candidate, with some saying he appeared to be under the influence.



"It was a great crowd, a good response. I guess you can do anything you want with a video and make it look any way you want, but I felt good, felt great, and I think the message got across very well, so it was a good speech," said Perry to reporters Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa.



ADVERTISEMENT

The video features clips of the GOP presidential candidate’s speech at the Cornerstone Action Awards Dinner that has since been viewed on YouTube more than 800,000 times and gained traction in the media this week for its exuberant depiction of Perry.



The eight-minute video shows Perry joking about how "cool" New Hampshire's state slogan is, making fun of rival Herman Cain's tax plan and giggling when presented with a bottle of maple syrup from the event's organizers.



Late-night comics and some news anchors have said Perry appeared drunk during the speech, and others have speculated he might have been on back-pain medications.



The host of the event, however, has denied that Perry had been drinking.



"I can tell you unequivocally he wasn’t drinking at the event and he hadn’t been drinking prior to the event," Kevin Smith, the executive director of Cornerstone Action, told The Hill.



A reporter asked Perry Tuesday if the Perry in the video is the candidate that will be seen on the campaign trail going forward.



"I would suspect that you're going to see [a Perry] very energized, very focused, talking about a 20 percent flat tax and being a very consistent conservative and not a conservative of convenience," responded Perry.



He declined to comment on the reports of sexual harassment allegations following Cain, currently the front-runner in the GOP primary, saying "it was a good rule of thumb" to wait until there are facts to discuss controversy.



To see Perry's New Hampshire speech in full, as posted by CBS News, watch below. And to see the edited version that went viral, click here.

