Gingrich’s daughter here to debunk “urban myth” of her parent’s divorce (audio)

Radio Iowa ^ | December 10, 2011 | O.Kay Henderson

[iowamark]

As I’ve interviewed several self-proclaimed Gingrich voters over the past few months, many of them cite Jackie Cushman’s “Setting the Record Straight” editorial piece.  Jackie Gingrich Cushman is Newt Gingrich’s daughter, from his first marriage.

“His own daughter refutes the negativity in the media with her account of her parent’s divorce,” Jeremy Freeman, an Iowa State University student, told me in late November.

Competing candidates and their campaigns have been tossing a good bit of negativity at Gingrich since he’s risen to the top of the polls, some of it about spacey ideas (colonizing the moon) Gingrich has proposed, or his past support of a health insurance mandate. But the former speaker’s marital history is part of the campaign conversation, even among his own supporters. The Gingrich campaign called me yesterday and asked if I would like half an hour with Jackie Cushman to talk about what Cushman herself calls the “urban myth” about her parent’s divorce in 1980.

The rap on the twice-divorce Gingrich was that he served his first wife with divorce papers while she was on her death bed, dealing with cancer.  Cushman,was 13 when her parents told her and her sister they were divorcing.  She wrote in “Setting the Record Straight” it was her mother who requested the divorce and that her mother did not have cancer — a tumor was found to be benign.

Our conversation this afternoon, in the Starbucks at the hotel where Cushman and her family are staying, started with this question:  “Why did you write that piece?”

Cushman responded (here’s the AUDIO

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 of her answer): “Obviously, we’ve been quiet for a very long time and that’s really out of respect for my mother. She’s obviously still very important in our lives. She helps watch the children which is fabulous. I mean, she’s the best babysitter ever and she’s been really supportive of my sister and I and has said, ‘Look, y’all, you go out and help your dad and I’m glad to be here and help. I’ll watch the children. I’ll do whatever you need.’ But she is not a public person and she’s not wanted to be a public person and has very clear about not talking to reporters and has just kind of kept quiet because it really, from our perspective, it was about our family and it really shouldn’t be public, from a public perspective.

“But I’ll tell you one of the things that changed my mind, that made me really think about it and, in the end, write this straightening out the record, how to set the record straight. I flew to Alaska in February to give a speech to a Republican group there and one of the ladies that picked me up, a lovely lady, I said, you know, ‘Great to be here. Let me just call and check on my mom because she has the kids. I’m going to see how they’re doing.’ And so I called and, of course, they’re fine. They’re with my mom.

“But when I got off the phone, she goes, ‘That was your mother?’ 

“And I said, ‘Yeah.’  

“She goes, ‘She’s still alive?’

“I said, ‘Absolutely she’s still alive because she’s watching my children,’ but that’s when I realized here I was in Alaska, I mean, far away, right? Still in the United States, but very far away and clearly this urban myth that was very, is very untrue had spread so far that people not only believed it, but actually believed that my mother — I guess, if she was on her death bed, she would have been dead, so I understand how they might make that connection — but it wasn’t true, isn’t true and I really felt that, you know, we needed to set the record straight.”

My follow-up question was about how voters, not just candidates, are bringing up the subject of her father’s marital history. “How do you feel your father has been answering that question in the public?” I asked.

“I think he’s been very honest. He’s been very open,” Cushman said. “He very publicly said, ‘Look, I’ve made mistakes in the past. I’ve sinned. I’ve asked God for forgiveness. I’ve asked God for grace.’ And I don’t know what else more people want.

“You don’t fix what happened and you don’t change the past. It is what it is and I think when people see that both Kathy, my sister, and I are involved in the campaign. We’ve always been a close family…I think voters appreciate that and I think, too, he has changed very much from when he was speaker. He’s not the same man. He’s not the same man, I mean nor an I the same woman that I was 12 years ago.”

I asked: “How so?”

“When he was speaker, he was vilified by the press for four years,” Cushman said. “I mean, we’re near Christmas, so I can see that at one point he was shown as the Grinch that Stole Christmas, right? I don’t know if you remember that cover of, I think it was Newsweek, but I can promise you, as my father, he never actually stole my Christmas.

“…He wasn’t that person then, but even since then he’s changed a lot…He has grandchildren. I think that does…change your perspective and I think it makes you think about things a little differently.  The other thing is he’s been a small businessman…and that’s been really good for him.

“…I have watched his faith deepen in the last decade. You know, he’s grown much stronger in his faith. I think you can see that when he talks about, ‘I have sinned and asked for God’s grace.’  I mean, he means that very seriously. He’s always believed in God and had that as part of his foundation, but I’ve seen it strengthen enormously in the last decade.”

Here’s the AUDIO

Download

 of Cushman’s answers to those two questions.

According to Cushman, her dad “hadn’t bothered” to debunk the “urban myth” about the ‘death bed divorce’ because “he didn’t want (his first wife) to get in the middle of it.” It being the glare of media attention.

As for Cushman’s mother, Cushman put it this way: “She’s a very happy 75-year-old grandmother.”

[nickcarraway]

Him trying to shirk the blame for his actions. He committed adultery many times on his first wife. The fact that he thinks this is okay, as long as he didn’t divorce his wife when she had cancer shows what a rotten person he is...

[nickcarraway]

People on Free Republic trashed John Edwards and other for their adultery. They should defend Edwards just as strenuously as they are Gingrich in this case.

[yoe]

Newt Gingrich is one of the most deliberately misquoted political figures ever by the MSM...always find the text to his remarks and speeches, it will amaze you and make you wonder if reporters and those who parrot rather than research are really that dumb or really like to mislead. Any baggage Gingrich might have is “American baggage” while Obama’s baggage is Communist Party USA baggage, anti-Capitalist, and racist baggage.

[yoe]

"...trashed John Edwards and other for their adultery.

...others? what others....read the article... there was no adultery.

[DesertRhino]

What was every other candidate doing in 1980? What was Obama doing in 1980? Isnt that when he was in Pakistan for a year? What was Romney doing in the late 60s while other men were fighting in Vietnam? He was on a mormon missionary deferrment in France. How about Bachmann,, in 1976 she and her husband helped get Jimmy Carter elected. This is a FUN game to look 3 and 4 decades back!

In short, i don’t care about Newts marriage in the 70s. I don’t intend to marry him. Jimmy Carter was a great family man, loves Jesus too,,,and he was one of the crappiest presidents we’ve ever had.

[MrEdd]

That is a pretty perverted thing for you to say, given the known circumstances. Unlike your bad self, other people here don't defent pervert teachers who prey upon their students.

Attack Newt on his support of global warming, and things that are his fault. But if you continue the path you are now on of defending his pervert first wife to take Newt down you will quite properly receive crap for it, and what you will receive will be well within the FR guidelines.

[nickcarraway]

Unlike your bad self, other people here don't defent pervert teachers who prey upon their students.

You are a liar, I never defended, or even mentioned a teacher, and you know it. Furthermore I never violated any FR guideline. You can attack me for being anti-socialist and Christian you want. But I won't buckle. Being those things is still legal in this country, no matter how much you hate it.

[MrEdd]

Absolutely you mentioned a teacher.

Newt's first wife began having sex with him when she was his high school geography teacher. She married him later when he was in college. There have been numerous threads going over all of this for several months now.

Even the catholic church, sticklers on divorce granted an annulment.

Teachers got away with that back then, especially with males, but today they quite properly tend to go to jail for a bit.

None of this is contested information.

You continue to spout any crap at all about how awful Newt was regarding his first marriage, and I will continue to call you on your crap for supporting pervert teachers.

You do not now and never will get to have it both ways. If you claim Newt was immoral about that first marriage, then you are defending his first wife, who decided to get into her student's pants.

[VictoryGal]

Interesting. What does his daughter have to say about when the local church had to take up a collection to support his family after he divorced Jackie because he refused to pay child support?

What kind of a man does that? A conservative man? A man with values?

http://marriage.about.com/od/politics/a/gingrichn_2.htm

Oh, before you call me a Mittbot — I despise Mittens and his liberal RINO candidacy. One of the only things I like about Newt is his ability to give Myth heartburn.

[VictoryGal]

Interesting. What does his daughter have to say about when the local church had to take up a collection to support his family after he divorced Jackie because he refused to pay child support?

What kind of a man does that? A conservative man? A man with values?

http://marriage.about.com/od/politics/a/gingrichn_2.htm

Oh, before you call me a Mittbot — I despise Mittens and his liberal RINO candidacy. One of the only things I like about Newt is his ability to give Myth heartburn.

[des]

Sexually abused children often develop compulsive sexual behavior.

[nickcarraway]

I had no idea his first wife is a teacher. I just checked and he was 19 years old when he married his first wife. You are claiming he was not an adult male at 19?

Whatever the case, I guess you believe that two wrongs make a right. Personally, if his wife did something bad, that doesn't give him free reign to do something bad.

How do you excuse the fact that he was committing adultery on his second wife? This was when the rest of the Republican party was trying to remove Clinton from office. He knew his behavior was treasonous!

But you are right in one sense, none of that matters, when you consider the evil he's embraced in the 20s. He's green on the outside, red on the inside.

[nickcarraway]

Even the catholic church, sticklers on divorce granted an annulment.

Do you have any proof of that?

[nickcarraway]

Should we also consider Callista to be a pervert?

[CitizenUSA]

nickcarraway: “Him trying to shirk the blame for his actions. He committed adultery many times on his first wife. The fact that he thinks this is okay, as long as he didn’t divorce his wife when she had cancer shows what a rotten person he is...”

I think that’s an unfair characterization, and I’m no Newt Gingrich fan. He admitted his mistakes. As an Christian, I’ve done evil things I’m not proud of. What’s done is done, and I can’t erase those sins. What I can do is admit them, ask Christ who has the power and authority to erase my sins for forgiveness, and try to go forth and sin no more. I don’t think it’s fair to expect more than that from any person.

[PhilDragoo]

His daughter corrects the record on what Rush calls one of the top things people know that isn't so, the dramatic divorce of the cancer-ridden wife on her deathbed.

[vette6387]

“Him trying to shirk the blame for his actions. He committed adultery many times on his first wife. The fact that he thinks this is okay, as long as he didn’t divorce his wife when she had cancer shows what a rotten person he is...”

I guess you don’t bother to read the article before mouthing off!

“The rap on the twice-divorce Gingrich was that he served his first wife with divorce papers while she was on her death bed, dealing with cancer. Cushman,was 13 when her parents told her and her sister they were divorcing. She wrote in “Setting the Record Straight” it was her mother who requested the divorce and that her mother did not have cancer — a tumor was found to be benign.”

Oh, well, I guess if you don’t like him for this reason or that, it’s o.k. to promulgate a lie to support your feelings!

[Evergolightly]

Before we all get carried away, Newt has made many mistakes, should he be spurned for life?

Forgiveness is a Christan virtue, we must all try it.

I dislike Edwards, not because of his infidelity but his socialist policies.

I dislike Clinton, not because he was a horndog, but a slick socialists.

I dislike Obis, not because he is black, but he is a socialist.

I can forgive all of them their human weaknesses, but not their evil intent.

Try to put things in perspective, we will never find the perfect candidate.

GOD is not running!

[maine-iac7]

. . The fact that he thinks this is okay, as long as he didn’t divorce his wife when she had cancer shows what a rotten person he is...

Are you illiterate or deaf or both?

How many times does his daughter have to tell us that her mother did NOT have cancer, did NOT die, and SHE was the one who asked for the divorce before you give up your "pontificous" self-righteousness?

[maine-iac7]

People on Free Republic trashed John Edwards and other for their adultery. They should defend Edwards just as strenuously as they are Gingrich in this case.

Big difference.

Edwards lied, schemed, bribed, denied is own daughter, etc etc

Gingrich never lied. He took full responsibility...

[maine-iac7]

Christian...

????

Christian is as Christian does -

Presuming to judge another when the Bible - and a Commandment - tells us not too - is that Christian.

[Lady Lucky]

http://www.creators.com/opinion/jackie-gingrich-cushman/my-miracle-mom.html

This link is to Jackie Gingrich’s “My Miracle Mom.” Two points I’ll put forward here via exact quotes; anyone is welcome to have at it, I will not be getting into a discussion.

“My parents met when my father was a senior at Baker High School. They started dating when he was in college.”

“Mom was first diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 1978.”

[Raebie]

His family and God have forgiven him. He doesn’t owe YOU an apology.

[VictoryGal]

> Before we all get carried away, Newt has made many mistakes, should he be spurned for life?

As long as he keeps making “mistakes”, yes. Newt has shown himself to be completely amoral, saying the “right” things and then gong back on those things, repeatedly.

> I dislike Edwards, not because of his infidelity but his socialist policies.

Then what do you think of Newt’s support for the horrible mandate to purchase healthcare — the most unconstitutional and freedom-crushing component of Obamneycare — THIS year.

Listen, I know its a rough year and we may have to settle for Newt. Fine. But I wish all of us would REMEMBER WHO NEWT IS and what he does, because if he gets the presidency we will have to CONSTANTLY keep pressure on him to do the right thing. As it is, he may usher in big government policies and strengthen Obamneycare and we may have very little influence on him. Newt is for Newt, people.

[nickcarraway]

I’m not judging him. I’m just saying it makes him unsuitable to be a president. Big difference, and you’d be wise to recognize it. I suppose you defend Bill Clinton this way? Maybe we should go to death row,m find someone who has been forgiven, and make them president? Practice what you preach.

[Osage Orange]

Sin is sin. No difference in God's mind.

So...that said, have you ever sinned?

Were you forgiven?

It's a bit different when we had a serial sinner...( Bill Clinton...) running for and becoming POTUS.

And BTW....yes you surely are judging him. I judge all the time. Welcome to the club.

[nickcarraway]

1. Everyone here is making a giant misunderstanding. Being forgiven does not make one a good candidate for president.

2. You are the direct representative of God on earth, who can tell us His will?

3. If he has atoned for his sins, why does he still deny that he ever did anything wrong. Why did he do it again? There is a good chance he’s in adulterous relationship right now, since he did that most of his adult life? What are you going to say when this comes out a week before the election?

4. How come his family said they are voting for Obama?

[nickcarraway]

It's a bit different when we had a serial sinner...( Bill Clinton...) running for and becoming POTUS.

And Newt Gingrich wasn't a serial sinner?? Didn't you see the article quoting Dick Armey about how Gingrich and Clinton would jaw about their respective extramarital flings?

[nickcarraway]

And BTW....yes you surely are judging him. I judge all the time. Welcome to the club.

So first I am evil because I "judged." Then you say I am a "judger" no matter what I do.

Semantics. Aren't we "judging" who should be the best presidential candidate? So we shouldn't "judge" Obama?

[longtermmemmory]

I am always amazed how many who post on these threads have the amazing ability to walk on water. (/s)

[nickcarraway]

So...that said, have you ever sinned?

Okay, can you pay attention here. I am not concerned with Gingrich (or any other candidate's actions) so much that they are sins, or the effect they have on his soul. I am using them to evaluate his fitness to hold the office of president. That's a whole different set of criteria. Gingrich (or Obama, or Romney, or XYX) may or may not be in good with God. That's not my concern per se. My concern is whether they would have potential to win the presidency, and more importantly, whether they'd be a good president. You are now claiming we should ignore a presidential candidates actions. I claim that is ludicrous.

Can any of you show me a post that you stuck up for Bill Clinton, or John Edwards in the same way? Why not? Don't the same rule apply to everyone?

[Raebie]

1. Every single human being on this planet sins, including your precious candidate, whomever that may be.

2. No. But if you ask for forgiveness, it will be granted. Christianity 101.

3. He has stated pubicly that he has made mistakes. that isn’t denying he never did anything wrong. The rest of your statement is BS.

4. Yes, his gay half sister is voting for Obama. Color me stunned.

Overall, nice fail.

[Osage Orange]

So first I am evil because I "judged." Then you say I am a "judger" no matter what I do.

LOL!!! When did I say you were evil? You said you weren't judging....I said I thought you were. Nothing more, nothing less.

Semantics. Aren't we "judging" who should be the best presidential candidate? So we shouldn't "judge" Obama?

nickcarraway....you were the guy/girl who said you weren't judging. All I said was we judge all the time. Period.

[Osage Orange]

There is a good chance he’s in adulterous relationship right now

There's a good chance you are a serial liar.

There's a good chance the world ends tomorrow.

There's a good chance I die tonight.

There's a good chance you get zotted.

See...two can play your game.

[nickcarraway]

Hmmm. Mature. I said there’s a good chance, because he has a track record of doing it over his adult life. Those things you mention don’t have a track Can I ask why are fighting for this guy? Can you also answer if/why you don’t defend Bill Clinton with the vehemence?

[Osage Orange]

You are now claiming we should ignore a presidential candidates actions

You really paint with a broad brush. I'd guess 75% of FReepers care about "ACTIONS" over words.

So let's just get down to where the rubber meets the road.

Both lead runners are sinners. Both unperfect human beings.

Both have said one thing, and done another.

WHO ARE YOU VOTING FOR?

[nickcarraway]

I meant “judging” in the since of that biblical passage. Obviously, the bible asks us to use our judgement all the time. How could we then be forbidden from using our judgement?

[Osage Orange]

Not fighting for him........

Countering your goofy logic...

Care to review???

[Osage Orange]

So....you meant you couldn't "judge" him...because you were involved in the same sin.

Okay, I get it.

Thanks!

[nickcarraway]

WHO ARE YOU VOTING FOR?

I don't have to decide until the primary comes to my state. But I can tell you now, I won't vote for Romney or Gingrich. It would be a terrible mistake. It's an unfortunate situation we are in.

[Osage Orange]

Didn't you see the article quoting Dick Armey about how Gingrich and Clinton would jaw about their respective extramarital flings?

Nope.

Got a link?

[Osage Orange]

What about the general?

[nickcarraway]

Well, considering I have never been married...

[nickcarraway]

That’s a long time off. I win’t be voting for Obama/Romney/Gingrich. Hopefully, there is someone who is not that terrible.

[nickcarraway]

For the record, I don't think I've wronged Gingrich in any way.

How come it's okay for him to "judge" me? He called me a "right wing social engineer" and ignorant for not believing in climate change.

[Osage Orange]

Uh, okay I get it.

Nice talking with ya..

[Osage Orange]

Uh, okay I get it.

Nice talking with ya..

[nickcarraway]

For example, Rick Santorum seems like a great guy, but I just don’t think he is suited to be president. (Which is actually a compliment)

[Osage Orange]

God is great.

Beer is good.

And people are stupid.