Contra Debate Claim, Gingrich Didn’t Offer ABC Friends to Rebut Marianne Gingrich Accusation

During last Thursday’s debate, when CNN moderator John King asked about Marianne Gingrich’s interview on ABC accusing Newt Gingrich of having requested an “open marriage,” part of Gingrich’s crowd-pleasing answer was this charge: “Let me be quite clear. The story is false. Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period said 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.”

Now, last night, King reported on his show CNN’s John King, USA that Gingrich had spoken inaccurately when he said that friends had been offered to ABC to rebut the story. “Well, 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. “Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the campaign offered to ABC were the speaker’s two daughters from his first marriage.”