By David Cohen
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s blistering smack-down of CNN’s John King during last week’s South Carolina debate will go down as one of the most memorable moments of the 2012 campaign. Now comes the shocking revelation that Gingrich’s big applause line during said smack-down was false. Yes, “shocking revelation” is meant to be sarcastic. The applause line seemed obviously false to me on its face, as anyone could have figured out upon 10 seconds of reflection. No one seems to have invested those 10 seconds — certainly not my fellow Republicans, who were too caught up in their Newt sugar high to ponder the consequences of the inevitable crash.
I was in the live audience in Charleston for last Thursday’s debate. That was the day that ABC News aired an interview with Marianne Gingrich, the former speaker’s second wife, in which she alleged that Gingrich at one point requested that they have an “open marriage.” John King famously opened the debate by asking Gingrich whether he wanted to respond to those allegations. Newt pounced, indignantly taking King to task for opening a presidential debate with such tawdry personal subject matter. Newt then shifted his ire to ABC News: “The story is false! Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period says the story was false! We offered several of them to ABC to prove it was false! They weren’t interested because they would like to attack any Republican.”
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s blistering smack-down of CNN’s John King during last week’s South Carolina debate will go down as one of the most memorable moments of the 2012 campaign. Now comes the shocking revelation that Gingrich’s big applause line during said smack-down was false. Yes, “shocking revelation” is meant to be sarcastic. The applause line seemed obviously false to me on its face, as anyone could have figured out upon 10 seconds of reflection. No one seems to have invested those 10 seconds — certainly not my fellow Republicans, who were too caught up in their Newt sugar high to ponder the consequences of the inevitable crash.
I was in the live audience in Charleston for last Thursday’s debate. That was the day that ABC News aired an interview with Marianne Gingrich, the former speaker’s second wife, in which she alleged that Gingrich at one point requested that they have an “open marriage.” John King famously opened the debate by asking Gingrich whether he wanted to respond to those allegations. Newt pounced, indignantly taking King to task for opening a presidential debate with such tawdry personal subject matter. Newt then shifted his ire to ABC News: “The story is false! Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period says the story was false! We offered several of them to ABC to prove it was false! They weren’t interested because they would like to attack any Republican.”
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