BLITZER: This is a real battle that is brewing on John McCain and his friend, the other side, Senator Rand Paul and some others, on the other side. One congressman from Michigan, Justin Amash, tweeted Senator McCain called senator Paul, senator Ted Cruz and be wacko birds, bravo, senator. You got us. Did you come up with that at hash tag dinner with Barack.



So who are you with, the McCains or the Rand Pauls?



GINGRICH: Well, I'm really disappointed in John McCain. And I'm very saddened by it. McCain in his younger years was a great maverick. He took on his party all the time. The idea that he is now lecturing the next generation because they have the guts to stand up, which I would have thought John McCain would have applauded the news and say, I may not agree with you in detail, but I'm proud that you're standing up with your beliefs. I don't know what's happening to John McCain, but I find it very sad.



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BLITZER: What do you make of the split that appears to be emerging among Republicans on this very sensitive issue?



GINGRICH: I think there's a deeper issue which is a split about tone. There are some Republicans who are so used to go in the nice restaurants in Georgetown and they are so used to hanging out their friend in the establishment that the tone bothers them. I saw nothing that Rand Paul did that was inappropriate. In fact, it was exactly why the U.S. Senate extends two individual senators, the right to talk forever. I'm from the house. We used to get one minute.



BLITZER: Right.



GINGRICH: But the Senate has a very different tradition of individuals standing up. So I thought Rand Paul was behaving in the best tradition of the U.S. Senate. And I thought for a guy like McCain, who had always been a maverick, who had reveled in opposing his party's establishment, to now be the sort of senior lecturer on behalf of how you should behave. I just thought it was a very sad moment.