Marianne Gingrich, the second wife of Newt Gingrich who has often said she could end Gingrich’s career with one interview, sat down with ABC News earlier this week for an on-camera interview, according to the Drudge Report. After much wrangling among network executives about when to air the interview, ABC will air the interview tonight on “Nightline,” which airs at 11:35 PM EST, an hour and a half after the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina.
Reports are that Marianne Gingrich says nothing new in the interview, and much of what she says is similar to what she told Esquire in a previous interview in 2010. But the impact of those words when spoken on camera can have a greater impact.
Gingrich is gaining momentum in South Carolina before Saturday’s “first-in-the-South” primary, and he told HUMAN EVENTS that he had a path to victory not only in South Carolina but beyond. Gingrich’s strategy is to win South Carolina and then consolidate the anti-Romney conservative vote going forward into states such as Florida, where the Republican primary is closed to registered Republican voters only. Gingrich’s path may have been made easier today when Perry withdrew from the race and endorsed the former House Speaker.
How much of an impact the ABC interview will have is unknown, mostly because Gingrich’s past marital baggage is known to many voters and it is something they have already factored in when considering Gingrich’s candidacy.
Yesterday, when it was leaked that ABC would air the Marianne Gingrich interview tonight, Gingrich’s daughters, Jackie Cushman and Kathy Lubbers, wrote a letter to ABC News that the Gingrich campaign made available to reporters.
“We will not say anything negative about our father’s ex-wife,” Gingrich’s daughters wrote in a letter to ABC News. “He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves.”
Lubbers and Cushman wrote, “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."
“ABC News or other campaigns may want to talk about the past, just days before an important primary election,” they wrote. “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.”
