NORTH CHARLESTON, SC — After a Republican presidential debate in which Newt Gingrich won his second standing ovation in four days for striking back at the press, one of the former House speaker’s senior advisers is suggesting a widely-publicized story featuring Gingrich’s ex-wife is a set-up, and its timing is suspicious.
“We kind of feel like it must be a political set-up of some sort,” former Rep. Bob Walker, a longtime colleague of Gingrich’s, said after the debate, referring to ABC News’ brief feature in which Marianne Gingrich claimed Gingrich asked to have an “open marriage.” Asked who might be behind the set-up, Walker said, “I don’t know, but ABC has been pretty favorable to Barack Obama over the years, and maybe they decided this was the time. I don’t know, but the timing is somewhat suspicious…As Newt begins to rise in the polls, it is interesting that a couple of days before the election is when they bring this up.”
