Drudge reports ABC News sitting on ‘explosive’ interview with Newt’s ex-wife

Vince Coglianese Editorial Director
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In one of Matt Drudge’s rare exclusives, the Drudge Report is reporting that ABC News executives have been going back and forth on releasing what they consider a crippling interview with Marianne Gingrich, the former House Speaker’s ex-wife:

Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband’s career with a single interview.

Earlier this week, she sat before ABCNEWS cameras, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail.

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ABCNEWS suits determined it would be “unethical” to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary, a curious decision, one insider argued, since the network has aggressively been reporting on other candidates.

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Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich’s daughters have responded to the news by addressing it in a letter to ABC News.

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We will not say anything negative about our father’s ex-wife. He has said before, privately and publicly, that he regrets any pain he may have caused in the past to people he loves.

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– about job creation, lower taxes, and about who can defeat Barack Obama by providing the sharpest contrast to his damaging, extreme liberalism. We are confident this is the conversation the people of South Carolina are interested in having.

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TheDC’s Matt Lewis obtained that letter and published it in full here.

UPDATE: In a Thursday morning interview on NBC’s Today Show, Newt Gingrich responded to ABC’s forthcoming interview.

“I’m not going to say anything negative about Marianne,” said Gingrich, deferring to his daughters’ letter on the subject. “I think that my two daughters are very credible of my character. I think the people that have known me a long time are credible of my character. I think we have lots of folks willing to speak about this. I’m not going to.

“People will have to judge me. I’m a 68-year-old grandfather. They see how close I am to my wife, Callista. They see how close I am to my daughters, my son in laws, to my two grandchildren, Maggie and Robert. They all have to make their mind up, but 16, 20 year old stories — we have real stories this week of the failure of the Obama administration, and I realize that some of the elite media would like to do anything other than cover his failures.”