Newt Gingrich’s campaign manager and a half-dozen senior advisers resigned on Thursday, two aides said, dealing a significant setback to his bid to seek the Republican presidential nomination and severely complicating his plan to make a political comeback.
The campaign manager, Rob Johnson, along with longtime spokesman Rick Tyler and advisers in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, joined together to step down after a period of deep internal disagreements about the direction of the campaign.
Mr. Gingrich, a former House speaker who has been fighting to regain his political footing after a rough campaign roll out last month, had been absent from the campaign trail for about two weeks on what aides had described as a pre-planned vacation. He made his first return to the campaign trail on Wednesday in New Hampshire, one day before the resignations were announced.
Independent journalism is important. Click here to get Truthout stories sent to your email.
The defections included several veteran Gingrich political advisers, along with new aides who were recently hired. The list, according to two aides, included: David Carney, a New Hampshire-based political strategist, Sam Dawson, a strategist, Katon Dawson, a South Carolina consultant and Craig Schoenfeld, an Iowa consultant.
The resignations were first reported on Thursday afternoon by The Associated Press. Two aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the resignations to The New York Times. The aides said the future of Mr. Gingrich’s campaign was not immediately clear.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page Thursday afternoon, Mr. Gingrich said he would not abandon his presidential campaign. He said that his next public appearance would be this week in California at an event sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” Mr. Gingrich wrote. “The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles.”
The shakeup comes as the field of Republican presidential candidates remains unsettled. Two of the advisers to Mr. Gingrich also have been top political aides to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who is taking a second look at exploring the party’s presidential nomination.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.