Even as poll numbers show Newt Gingrich narrowing the gap with front-runner Mitt Romney in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, he and his campaign have one eye turned toward an untimely and potentially embarrassing distraction. As first reported by The Drudge Report late Wednesday, ABC is planning to air a damaging interview with Gingrich’s second wife on the Thursday night broadcast of “Nightline.”
Marianne Gingrich, Newt’s former wife of 18 years, told a reporter in the 1990’s that she could end her husband’s career with a single interview. The exact nature of the forthcoming interview has not yet been disclosed, but the combination of Gingrich’s controversial marital history and Marianne’s propensity for tell-all interviews is likely to be of great concern to the Gingrich camp as they head into the weekend primary.
Gingrich, now married for a third time, is no stranger to dealing with negative press surrounding the circumstances of his first two marriages. Within weeks of meeting Marianne in 1981, he proposed to her before his divorce from his first wife was final. Eighteen years later, by his own admission, he began an extramarital affair with congressional aide Callista Bisek, who was to become his third and current wife.
Newt and Marianne Gingrich finalized their divorce in 2000, and she has since been an outspoken critic of the former Speaker and his political ambitions. When asked about Newt’s presidential bid in a 2010 interview with Esquire, Marianne responded “There’s no way. He could have been President. 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 are. You lose your way.”
Newt Gingrich has not yet offered comment, and he cancelled a scheduled press conference on Wednesday to confer with his campaign staff on the matter. Senior Gingrich adviser Bob Walker reportedly said, “It is pretty nasty to use personal tragedy for political exploitation. That was a very bitter divorce, and you’re talking about somebody who is still, probably, very bitter.”
While late night news broadcasts debated the ethical implications of running the interview just 36 hours before the South Carolina primary, Gingrich daughters Kathy Lubbers and Jackie Cushman released an open memo to ABC News management. In part, they wrote “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 … We are confident this is the conversation the people of South Carolina are interested in having.”
The extent of the damage, if any, to Gingrich’s campaign effort will not be known until after the “Nightline” story runs. The Marianne Gingrich interview is tentatively scheduled to be broadcast Thursday night on ABC.
Sources:
“Newt Ex Wife Unloads On Camera “, The Drudge Report
John H. Richardson, “Newt Gingrich: The Indispensable Republican “, Esquire
Robert Costa, “Newt World Responds to ABC Buzz “, National Review Online
Michael Calderone, “ABC Insider: Marianne Gingrich Interview Likely To Air Before Primary; Gingrich Daughters Respond “, Huffington Post