Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said conservative blogger Erick Erickson, who has recently said the Republicans should prepare for a third-party alternative if Donald Trump wins the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, is “functionally supporting Hillary Clinton.”

When asked about a potential conservative candidate running as a third-party, Gingrich said, “Have fun. It’s an amusing parlor game. It has no meaning in the real world, but if it makes you feel better. I draw a distinction, I mean John Boehner is genuinely fond of Paul Ryan — as I am — and Boehner, frankly I think, would rather see somebody other than Cruz who caused him a lot of pain or Trump who I’m sure he sees as a very strange outsider for a traditional political standpoint. I’m not sympathetic at all to the Erick Erickson of the world. If they want to form the let’s elect Hillary Clinton club, fine. But they ought to be honest about it. Any effort to help anybody but the Republican nominee helps Hillary Clinton. And if you think giving Hillary Clinton the Supreme Court, having Hillary Clinton run our foreign policy, having Hillary Clinton support the unions to continue ruining our children in schools. If you think that’s acceptable, do it. Erick Erickson’s not playing a risk-free game. It’s not like there is some pure middle way. If he does not support the Republican nominee, he is functionally supporting Hillary Clinton in the general election.”

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