Thread: Newt ex-wife unloads on camera; network debates 'ethics' of airing before sc primary

Matt Drudge





NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS ON CAMERA; NETWORK DEBATES 'ETHICS' OF AIRING BEFORE SC PRIMARY

**Exclusive**
Wed Jan 18 2012 18:47:14 ET

Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview.

Earlier this week, she sat before ABCNEWS cameras, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail.

But now a "civil war" has erupted inside of the network, an insider claims, on exactly when the confession will air!

MORE

ABCNEWS suits determined it would be "unethical" to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary, a curious decision, one insider argued, since the network has aggressively been reporting on other candidates.

A decision was tentatively made to air the interview next Monday, after all votes have been counted.

Gingrich canceled a press conference on Wednesday to deal with the matter.

"He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected," Marianne Gingrich, Newt's wife of 18 years, explained to ESQUIRE last year.

Developing...


Source: DRUDGE EXCLUSIVE: NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS ON CAMERA; NETWORK DEBATES 'ETHICS'

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Report Claims Upcoming ABC Interview With Gingrich Ex-Wife Could ‘End’ Candidates Career, Network Fears Airing Close to SC Primary

The Blaze – 7 mins ago...

According to Drudge Report, Marianne Gingrich -- ex-wife of GOP candidate Newt Gingrich -- dropped what sources claim is a game-changing bombshell about the former House Speaker -- one that could "end" her ex-husband's career. The two-hour long interview, conducted last week by Brian Ross, is said to contain "explosive revelations" that will "rock the campaign trail."

The controversial nature of the interview is now causing major waves at the network, according to sources, and a "civil war" has since exploded at ABC on exactly when the tell-all will air.

Drudge reports that executives at ABCNews say it would be "unethical" to run Marianne Gingrich's interview so close to South Carolina Primary and that a tentative decision has been made to broadcast the interview next Monday after all votes have been counted.

According to Drudge, a source familiar with the incident finds the decision to hold off airing the segment until after the primary odd, given that ABC has been assailing other candidates aggressively.

Gingrich canceled a press conference on Wednesday, reportedly to address the matter.

This is not the first time, however that Gingrich's second wife (out of three) has claimed she could level the Contract with America author's career in one fell swoop.

Marianne was also interviewed for an Esquire profile of her ex-husband back in the summer of 201o. She touched on the idea of a Gingrich presidential run, saying, "He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected." She added, "If you believe that, then yeah, you can run for president."

Since he was a teenager, Newt Gingrich has never been without a wife, and his bond with Marianne Gingrich during the most pivotal part of his career made her the most important advisor to one of the most important figures of the late twentieth century. Of their relationship, she says, "We started talking and we never quit until he asked me for a divorce."

She sounds proud, defiant, maybe a little wistful. You might be inclined to think of what she says as the lament of an abandoned wife, but that would be a mistake. There is shockingly little bitterness in her, and she often speaks with great kindness of her former husband. She still believes in his politics. She supports the Tea Parties. She still uses the name Marianne Gingrich instead of going back to Ginther, her maiden name.

But there was something strange and needy about him. "He was impressed easily by position, status, money," she says. "He grew up poor and always wanted to be somebody, to make a difference, to prove himself, you know. He has to be historic to justify his life."


Marianne and Newt Gingrich 2

She says she should have seen the red flags. "He asked me to marry him way too early. And he wasn't divorced yet. I should have known there was a problem." [...]

And he did the same thing to her eighteen years later, with Callista Bisek, the young congressional aide who became his third wife. "I know. I asked him. He'd already asked her to marry him before he asked me for a divorce. Before he even asked."

He told you that?

"Yeah, he wanted to — "

But she stops. "Hey, turn off the tape recorder for a second. This is going to go places ..."

This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.

Report Claims Upcoming ABC Interview With Gingrich Ex-Wife Could

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Report Claims Upcoming ABC Interview With Gingrich Ex-Wife Could ‘End’ Candidates Career, Network Fears Airing Close to SC Primary

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If true, this will certainly send tremors through the already VERY NERVOUS Conservative Base the GOP can ever hope to bring in for this election.

Bombs, traps, and land mines everywhere ...

Marianne Gingrich speaks

By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 1/18/12 8:54 PM EST

Matt Drudge first broke news that Marianne Gingrich, Newt Gingrich's second wife who he left after a lengthy affair with his current wife, Callista, has given an interview to ABC News, which appears to mark only the second time she's spoken this cycle.
My colleagues Dylan and Keach report that the interview is likely to air tomorrow night, which would coincide with the final debate before the South Carolina primary vote on Saturday.
Marianne Gingrich has barely spoken this campaign cycle, and the fact that Gingrich has a messy personal past is well known.
But based on her comments in the past about their relationship - Marianne Gingrich has said her then-husband called to ask for a divorce by phone while she was visiting her mother for her birthday in Ohio, and while he was leading the charge against Bill Clinton over Sexgate - it seems unlikely that this is going to be a positive thing for Gingrich at a time when his candidacy is surging.
Drudge also said there was some consternation among ABC News executives about airing a potentially explosive interview so close to a pivotal vote. Dylan and Keach say their sources downplayed that. It's also not clear how much new light Marianne Gingrich will actually shed on the candidate.
But Drudge's siren-headlined bulletin - his splash came a day after the 14-year anniversary of him breaking word of the Lewinsky scandal - ensures much more focus on interview by the rest of the press.
I asked Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond about the interview, and he released a letter to ABC News execs from Gingrich's daughters, Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman, who have become his biggest surrogates in answering questions about their family. The letter is below:

The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved. Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events.

We will not say anything negative about our father’s ex-wife. He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves.
ABC News or other campaigns may want to talk about the past, just days before an important primary election. But Newt is going to talk to the people of South Carolina about the future– about job creation, lower taxes, and about who can defeat Barack Obama by providing the sharpest contrast to his damaging, extreme liberalism. We are confident this is the conversation the people of South Carolina are interested in having.

Our father is running for President because of his grandchildren – so they can inherit the America he loves. To do that, President Obama must be defeated. And as the only candidate in the race, including Obama, who has actually helped balance the national budget, create jobs, reform welfare, and cut taxes and spending, Newt felt compelled to run - to serve his country and safeguard his grandchildren's future.

Marianne Gingrich speaks - POLITICO.com

ABC Insider: Marianne Gingrich Interview Likely To Air Before Primary; Gingrich Daughters Respond


First Posted: 1/18/12 08:35 PM ET Updated: 1/18/12 08:53 PM ET
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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Drudge Report began teasing political reporters Wednesday that a network's holding a "bombshell campaign interview." And soon, Drudge revealed that the network in question, ABC, had conducted a two-hour interview with Marianne Gingrich, ex-wife of Newt Gingrich, that may not run until after the South Carolina primary. The decision, Drudge reported, sparked a "civil war" at the network.

ABC staffers were caught by surprise at the news, telling The Huffington Post that if there was a "civil war," they hadn't heard about it. That doesn't mean there wasn't any debate among ABC executives over when to air the interview, but simply that the war certainly wasn't raging through the newsroom.

It also looks like the interview will air before Saturday's South Carolina primary after all. One ABC insider said that the Gingrich interview, conducted with Brian Ross, will likely air on Thursday's "Nightline."

Marianne Gingrich, the former Speaker's second wife, of 18 years, hasn't been shy about her feelings toward her ex-husband's presidential ambitions, telling Esquire in 2010 that there's "no way."

"He could have been president," she said. "But when you try and change your history too much, and try and recolor it because you don't like the way it was or you want it to be different to prove something new ... you lose touch with who you really are. You lose your way."

"He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don't have to be connected," Gingrich added, in the Esquire interview. "If you believe that, then yeah, you can run for president."

In the Esquire interview, Marianne also dismisses the conversion to Catholicism during his current, and third, marriage. She said it "has no meaning."

It's unclear who leaked the story to Drudge -- perhaps an ABC staffer who didn't want the interview to possibly get held until next week or rival campaign operative hoping to get Gingrich's baggage front-and-center on the influential conservative aggregator. Whoever the source, they got the political tongues wagging just 72 hours before the primary.

Gingrich's two daughters from his first marriage pushed back Wednesday, writing in a letter to the network's leadership that "ABC News or other campaigns may want to talk about the past, just days before an important primary election [but] Newt is going to talk to the people of South Carolina about the future."

The Gingrich daughters' letter, provided to The Huffington Post, is below:

To: ABC News Leadership
From: Kathy Lubbers, Jackie Cushman
Date: January 18, 2012

The failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved. Anyone who has had that experience understands it is a personal tragedy filled with regrets, and sometimes differing memories of events.


We will not say anything negative about our father’s ex-wife. He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves.

ABC News or other campaigns may want to talk about the past, just days before an important primary election. But Newt is going to talk to the people of South Carolina about the future -- about job creation, lower taxes, and about who can defeat Barack Obama by providing the sharpest contrast to his damaging, extreme liberalism. We are confident this is the conversation the people of South Carolina are interested in having.

Our father is running for President because of his grandchildren -- so they can inherit the America he loves. To do that, President Obama must be defeated. And as the only candidate in the race, including Obama, who has actually helped balance the national budget, create jobs, reform welfare, and cut taxes and spending, Newt felt compelled to run -- to serve his country and safeguard his grandchildren's future.

ABC Insider: Marianne Gingrich Interview Likely To Air Before Primary; Gingrich Daughters Respond

I watched a little bit of Good Morning America this morning. If I wasn't so used to ABC's propaganda I would believe that Newt is the frontrunner in the race. ABC really seems to be against Romney. I also noticed that the newscasters faces really lit up when they were talking about Obama.

Open marriage - open borders. Makes no difference when you are a NWO goblin like Newt. He would run the country just like his marriages....right in to the ground.

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Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

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