More Presidential Campaign Dirty Tricks (A.K.A. South Carolina Politics)
Earlier this morning, emails began circulating throughout South Carolina political circles claiming to originate from CNN as “breaking news” that former House speaker and GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich forced his second ex-wife Marianne to have an abortion.
The email was fake.
Although the message allegedly came from “BreakingNews@mail.cnn.com,” according to CNN political reporter Peter Hamby who frequently covers politics in South Carolina, “CNN did not send out the email alert.”
The email stated, “A source close to Marianne Gingrich tells CNN that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich forced her to abort a pregnancy conceived during the affair that preceded her marriage to Gingrich.”
Now, a second fake email is making the rounds. This time it claims to be a statement from the Gingrich campaign offering a statement of apology.
Titled “Newt Gingrich Responds to Abortion Allegations,” the email reads, “I have said many times, including on the debate stage last night, that I am not a perfect human being and I have made mistakes in my life. This was one of them. I have had to apologize to God and to seek reconciliation. The fact is, I am not proud of some decisions I have made or actions I have taken, but I believe in the power of redemption and I trust the voters of South Carolina do as well.”
The originating email address is “campaign@newt20l2.org.” If pasted in to a word processing program like Microsoft Word and if the programs “change case” function is applied to make all characters upper cases, the address changes to “CAMPAIGN@NEWT20L2.ORG.”
The “1” in 2012 is actually a lower case “L,” making the originating domain “newt20L2.org.”
According to records, the “newt20L2.org” was privately registered today using GoDaddy.com, LLC.
While this is not the first dirty trick used in South Carolina politics, it is doubtful it will be the last, either. Polls are open tomorrow, January 21, from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.
