Much reaction following the first question at Thursday night’s CNN/Tea Party debate in South Carolina. John King weathered a blistering attack from Newt Gingrich after King asked about Gingrich’s second wife’s accusation that he’d asked for an open marriage before divorcing her in 1999.
“I have been covering politics for 25 years,” King told Anderson Cooper after the debate. “I understood that if I asked the question, he was not going to be happy with it, and he was going to turn on me. Knew that coming in.”
“It was my judgment, my decision, and mine alone,” King said. “If we’re going to deal with it, let’s deal with it up front, let’s not try to sneak it into the middle of the debate somewhere. And people at home either agree with that or disagree with that. You make the decision, you ask the question, and this is politics.”
David Gergen weighed in calling it, “one of the most explosive moments that we have seen in debate history,” and “also one of the harshest attacks we’ve had on the press that I can remember in a long, long time.”
For his part Gingrich told Cooper he thought “it was a terrific debate for all of us.”
“I thought the audience was really appreciative. I thought John did a great job. It was direct. It was tough.”