NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Newt Gingrich lashed out angrily at the news media Thursday night for fresh reporting on his failed second marriage, in an extraordinary opening to a high-stakes debate two days before a pivotal GOP presidential primary in South Carolina.
"Trash," the former Speaker of the House of Representatives called it, as he was asked to respond to media reports at the very moment when he's gaining support and has pulled into a neck-and-neck contest in the state with Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
"I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that," Gingrich said, his face flush with anger, when asked about an ABC interview with his ex-wife in the opening question of a two-hour debate on CNN.
In the ABC report, Gingrich's second wife, Marianne Gingrich, broke a long silence to say that he had asked her to grant him an "open marriage" so he could maintain an extramarital relationship with a House aide, Callista Bisek, who later became his third wife. He divorced Marianne in 2000 and married Callista shortly after.
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Gingrich railed at ABC News for airing it, at CNN for asking about it, and at the news media generally for "destructive, negative" reporting - all drawing loud cheers and applause from the Republican audience of about 2,500.
Read more in Friday's Arizona Daily Star and StarNet.
