This journal article (Oct 29-2011,) has parts from a telephone conversation of the journalist with Sargent:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/your-money/thomas-sargent-nobel-winner-rejects-philosophical-slogans.html
Although none of it mentions "New-Keynsian", there are some interesting points, like
"Professor Sargent said he felt insulted by people who call him
“non-Keynesian” or “right wing,” terms that, he said, are based on a
misunderstanding of his thinking... He’s a Democrat, he said, “a fiscally conservative, socially liberal Democrat,” adding, “I
think that budget constraints are really central.”"
On Keynes?
"The “non-Keynesian” label irks him particularly. “That’s just off
base,” he said. “Keynes was a very good economist. He was brilliant.
He had wonderful insights. His work has inspired me many times.”"
So are we to believe that Sargent is a "Keynesian"?
"Today, Professor Sargent says that in some ways he actually is a
Keynesian, but he qualified that claim, too. “I’m happy to say I am a
Harrison-Kreps-Keynesian,” he said, citing work by two scholars at
Stanford, J. Michael Harrison and David M. Kreps. They developed a
theory of speculative investor behavior and stock-bubble formation
that subtly modifies rational expectations “in a beautiful way” and
“captures Keynes’s argument, makes it rigorous, and pushes it
further,” he said."