Several of the audience members asking questions at Tuesday night’s GOP foreign policy debate have close ties to two different presidential candidates: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Questioner Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute has a brother, Robert Kagan, who is a Romney adviser, according to the Washington Post.
AEI expert Danielle Pletka’s husband, Stephen Rademaker, also works for Romney. Pletka asked a question about Iran. According to a tweet from the Heritage Foundation’s Rob Bluey, Pletka was “instrumental” in putting this debate together.
Bluey also tweeted that Kagan will be in the spin room after the debate.
Gingrich is a former senior fellow at AEI, the organization that co-hosted Tuesday’s foreign policy debate with the Heritage Foundation and CNN.
There’s no evidence to suggest that these relationships have unfairly benefitted Gingrich or Romney. It does, however, raise suspicions.