“I want to come back to your point there, sir. You were attacking me and calling me part of the elite media. We can debate whether it was an appropriate question at the beginning of debate. My business is debating that, but I could not have asked you the question if your ex-wife had not come forward. She’s a Republican, sir. She said she supports much of your principles. How was that an example of the elite media trying to protect Barack Obama?”

“Well, you have to ask yourself the question. Why would ABC go back many years, why would they dredge up something which had already been reported several years ago?” Gingrich replied. “Why would they do it two nights before a primary? Why would they refuse to have other witnesses rebut her? We offered them a number of people who were there at the time who said what she was saying just wasn’t true. I would just suggest to you that when the only person you get is an ex-wife who wants to testify on the air just before a primary with nobody allowed to rebut her, there’s something a little goofy about that design. And my point to you, John, was simple and I repeat it. You didn’t have to take the bait. You didn’t have to pick it up. You could have ignored ABC. We could have gone straight to energy policy, the economy, balancing the budget. there were lots of big questions we could have talked about instead of taking the time on something like that.”