(CNN) - Newt Gingrich's campaign admitted Wednesday night the former House speaker was inaccurate when he claimed his team offered several witnesses to ABC News to refute statements made by Gingrich's second wife in a controversial interview aired last week.
CNN Chief National Correspondent John King reported the campaign said it only recommended Gingrich's two daughters from his first marriage, who wrote a letter discouraging ABC to release the interview.
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Marianne Gingrich claimed in the ABC interview that her husband asked for an open marriage while he was having an extramarital affair with his current wife, Callista Gingrich.
"The story was false. Every personal friend I have who knew us in that period says the story is false. We offered several of them to ABC to prove it was false. They weren't interested," Gingrich said at a CNN debate last week.
In an interview on Tuesday, King pressed Gingrich on those claims, saying ABC News insisted no such witnesses were put forward.
Gingrich said ABC's defense was "just plain baloney."
"If they're saying that, then they're not being honest," Gingrich said. "We had several people prepared to be very clear and very aggressive in their dispute about that, and (ABC News) wasn't interested."
On Wednesday, however, the campaign conceded the candidate was wrong, both in his debate answer and in his interview with CNN on Tuesday.
R.C. Hammond, the campaign's press secretary, told CNN the only people the campaign offered to ABC were the speaker's two daughters, Jackie Cushman and Kathy Gingrich Lubbers, who make regular appearances for their father on the campaign trail.
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Well, I know I am shocked that the slimy salamander would throw out lies, to try and save his ass during the the heat of the debate.
However, continuing to do it, classifies the newt as a pathological liar, kinda like being a "historian" instead of the "consultant" Freddie Mac was paying for.
John King did the right thing vetting this man in SC he is running for Pres. You will now see the trickle down lies from Gingrich starting with this one. I am sure the next will have to do with his record as a Republican, and what Nancy Pelosi has on him. John King was the moderator you don't sound off on a moderator like a mad dog. Gingrich chose to run for Pres. John King did not force his hand and I think ALL candidates should be vetted out just like they did with Obama. I applaud John King because now we will see the lies coming from Gingrich.
Gingrich will say whatever it takes to get himself off the hook – when pressed aggressively his rep reponds, not him! He gets away witih his lies because the media is intimidated and usually doesn't follow up. Good for John King for going after him. He should continue to expose this arrogant lier.
Gingrich is a liar. Of course, so are all politicians.
So...he out and out lied. What a surprise! NOT!!!!!!
That's not an "error," that's a lie. How can anyone believe a word out of that creep's mouth.
What else is new? Even after all this mess about Newt the media still portrays him as an ideal candidate.
The headline should be rephrased to something like, "Newt caught lying." Something like this should go viral and Newt has consistently lied about every one of his position as a speaker. Everything that he was accused of from being a lobbyist to his 3rd marriage to bail outs will eventually be clear as water. So we have a liar as a potential president. America?
It takes a big man with strong self confidence to admit they made a mistake. Newton sounds like the man for the Job.
Gingrich claimed ABC news was "not being honest," and his campaign admits ABC was correct. That makes Gingrich a liar in my book.
shoot. I was hoping they were going to admit his entire candidacy was a mistake.
Stop Lying Mr. Gingrich.
"I was wrong, but let's throw some red meat to our bloodthirsty, uneducated idiot base and blame the media anyway."
Error? Really? The disgraced former speaker is a liar.
The headline in the CNN home page as "Gingrich Admits Error." I kind of felt the earth move.
So this is News? Gingrich still managed to expose John King, CNN, and ABC for the biased Liberal news organizations they truly are and the audience erupted with support! This spoke volumes as to how informed American voters truly are and that credibility and fairness within the media has waned so much! Wake up CNN, America is on to you!
who cares. Newt still made john king look like a blithering lightweight. He should stick to his map boards and election coverage.
He divorced his second wife because he later discovered that she use to be on food stamps. Hahahahaha!
The only surprise here is that Gingrich is admitting his "error".
The problem I see here is that this "historian" wants to rewrite history and correct all the erros but they can't tel what's true or cues anymore.
We know better though! He's a hypocritical buffoon!
I thought the bigger error was him running for president.
Of course the two daughters only have nice things to say about the woman that made Newt leave the marriage with their mother..... Really?
Pants on fire again? Let's send Gingrich to the moon where he can lie in peace.
Dance, dance, dance Newt. (along with the other candidates) You are merely GUARANTEEING O'Bama's 2nd term. And while I am at it, shut up and listen to what Americans are saying, not your hand-selected audiences. We know what is wrong – we're not stupid – we want to know how you're going to fix it! 🙁
I'm sure he love to be asked the question again in tonight's debate!
Gingrich needs to publicly state that he was wrong with his statements and his defense. He essentially accused ABC of lying...when in fact the lie was on his part. For a candidate to go on national TV and in a debate say one thing and score political points for it and then the campaign quietly correcting his false statements is downright shameful. Next, he'll be claiming he lead the SWAT team that killed Bin Laden, and they'll issue a little statement saying "the candidate was incorrect."