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.”
A few moments later, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond also suggested that someone or some organization — unnamed — is behind the story. “We knew people were going to throw as much mud at us as possible,” Hammond said. “If you’re not over the target, you’re not taking flak. Well, we must be pretty darn close to getting this nomination, because there are a lot of stops being pulled now. We’re not going to go around pointing fingers at who they are, but we think it’s pretty obvious.” Hammond did not elaborate.
The first question at Thursday night’s debate was about Gingrich’s ex-wife, opening the way for Gingrich to condemn CNN’s John King for asking it. “I think the destructive, vicious negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich said to King. The audience began to cheer Gingrich, and many rose to their feet when he added, “To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything that I can imagine.”
Just three days ago, at the Fox News debate in Myrtle Beach, Gingrich won a standing ovation for hitting moderator Juan Williams hard over charges that some of Gingrich’s accusations against President Obama were racially tinged. At the time, observers noted that it was extremely unusual for a crowd to rise to its feet in support of a candidate during a debate. Now Gingrich has done it twice in a week.
