Not a good news day for Gingrich leading into the last debate before the Florida primary.
A week ago Gingrich had to stand up to a debate the day after ABC aired an interview with his ex-wife in which she described his request to convert his marriage with a six-year affair on the side to what he called an open marriage. He handled it pretty well, doing what comes naturally to him: he lied.
And the kicker is, it worked. Everyone agrees that his pugnacious presentation won the debate.
Unfortunately for him, he had to walk back his story just ever so slightly today. In fact, “Tonight, after persistent questioning by our staff, the Gingrich campaign concedes now Speaker Gingrich was wrong – both in his debate answer, and in our interview yesterday,” King said on tonight’s edition of John King USA. “Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the Gingrich campaign offered to ABC were his two daughters from his first marriage.”
You really should watch the video. A week after he lied in the debate, and two days after he lied on camera, they had to come back and admit that what was baloney here, to use Gingrich’s term, was not ABC’s reporting but Gingrich’s own claims.
I didn’t watch tonight’s debate, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t ask the question I would have asked. If I were asking the questions, my first one would be:
Mr. Gingrich at a debate the other night you stated that you had asked ABC to interview several of your friends and that they had refused to do so. Today your campaign admitted that your statement was false, and that the only people you offered to ABC to interview were your two daughters, who have also worked on your campaign.
In light of the fact that your statements during the debate were demonstrably and intentionally false, how can you expect the American people to believe anything else you say to them?
Alternate wording: In light of the fact that your statements during the debate were demonstrably and intentionally false, are you prepared to release to the American people a list of the other knowing misstatements you have made during your long political career?
So tell me, did anyone ask that question, or any version of it?
I’m guessing no one asked, largely because the corporate media is inept, but also because this kind of fact-checking and follow-through exposses most any assertion by most any politician, D or R, as being loose with the truth.
John King, far from being “inept” with his follow through and coverage of this “story”, took a couple of days to fact-check and expose that the assertion made by the Gingrich campaign was false. As this video shows, John King was able to force the Gingrich campaign to admit that Newt was wrong to claim during Florida’s first debate that his campaign offered up additional sources to ABC and that he was wrong to continue to assert the lie in an interview the next day. I know it’s popular to bash the “media” for all of our ills, but this case is an extremely poor way to make that point.
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/p…