? Texas governor Rick Perry pulls out of Republican race
? Iowa GOP strips Mitt Romney of win after ballot confusion
? Newt Gingrich surges in South Carolina as vote nears
? Gingrich's ex wife says he wanted 'open marriage'
?�Follow developments live
Newt Gingrich isn't exactly fond of Europeans, but this open marriage business is all very 18th century France, isn't it?
At his campaign stop in Beaufort, Gingrich is pressed on the issue of his past adultery.
Newt asked about "lapses in character" says he's asked forgiveness, knew he would get attacked "We decided the country was worth the pain.
? Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) January 19, 2012
Another one of our correspondents, Chris McGreal, is in Greenville, a stoutly conserative city in upstate South Carolina. He reports that Michelle Bachman, who quit the race last year, has given the local paper a withering assessment of Newt Gingrich.
While Gingrich was bolstered by Perry's endorsement he is also enduring some withering criticism from Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party loving member of Congress who dropped out of the Republican race. Bachmann told the Greenville News today that Gingrich is totally unfit to be the nominee.
She said: "Through this exhaustive process of consideration, it was strikingly obvious that one candidate could not be less acceptable to be our party's nominee. He lacks the poise, experience and moral fiber to represent our principles and values. That candidate is Newt Gingrich."
Meanwhile, this file photo shows Marianne and Newt Gingrich in what tabloids always say were "happier times".
My colleague Matt Williams has fleshed out the Rick Perry quotes.
There is no viable path for me in the 2012 campaign. Therefore today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich.
Newt is not perfect, but who amongst us is? But there is forgiveness for those who seek God, and I believe in the power of redemption.
He went on:
I know when it is time to make a strategic retreat. I will leave the trail, return to Texas and lie down my 2012 campaign and I will do so with pride.
I will continue to fight for these conservative reforms because the future of our country is at stake and the road we are travelling ? President Obama's road ? is a dangerous road.
This I know, I'm not done fighting for the cause of conservatism. As a matter of fact, I have just begun to fight.
Newt Gingrich is speaking now in Beaufort, South Carolina, saying he was "honored and privileged" to have the endorsement of Rick Perry.
Gingrich says he and Perry spoke this morning ? not yesterday as reported earlier ?�and says he has asked Perry to head up a "tenth amendment enforcement project".
The tenth amendment enshrines the notion that powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the states by the constitution are reserved to states. So this appears to be an effort to bolster Gingrich's credentials on states' rights ? an issue central to Ron Paul.
Our Washington DC bureau chief, Ewen MacAskill who was at the Perry event, has this analysis of his decsion to quit, saying he ran a "terrible campaign".
When he joined the race in August, Perry had on paper all the credentials to jump to the top of the polls, which he subsequently did. He was photogenic, had experience of government as governor of Texas and could point to an albeit dubious record of job creation.
But a series of awful debate performances saw him plummet. He said that anyone who did not support a more tolerant approach to immigration had no hear: not what Repubublicans wanted to hear. Then there was his "oops" moment, from which he never recovered.
He got better on the campaign trail but it was too late. Republicans were scathing. One woman in South Carolina described him to me yesterday, on the basis of his debate performances, as "one chip short of a Happy Meal".
Perry did not help his cause by suggesting after Iowa he might quit, only to change his mind the next day. But he is out now, after only managing 4-5% in the polls in South Carolina.
His last service is to help Newt Gingrich. Most of his votes could go to Gingrich, with some to Rick Santorum. In a tight race, with Gingrich surging, that might make the difference to the former House speaker on Saturday in the South Carolina primary and ruin what Romney had hoped would be an easy glide to the Republican nomination.
Ewen also makes the point that Perry's withdrawal could help Gingrich in tonight's debate.
The smaller the number of people on the platform, the more chance of a real debate rather than soundbites. It also gives them more air time. Gingrich is a better debater than Romney.
Gingrich won Monday night's debate, partly explaining his surge in recent days. He needs to repeat that again tonight here in Charleston, in the debate organised by CNN and the Tea Party Patriots. Just as equally Romney needs to come back strong. The fate of the South Carolina primary and maybe even the Republican nomination could be decided tonight.
So what to make of that? As Gingrich faces a tough day with the explosive allegations from his former wife, the most significant comment issued by Perry was that he believed in "redemption". It's a powerful image for social conservatives ?�and it's the only defence that can credibly be advanced in support of the adulterous formoer House speaker. The question is whether it's enough.
Perry says he's heading back for Texas, and ends with what should be a rallying call, but sounds more like a death rattle.
I'm not done fighting for the cause of conservatism. As a matter of fact, I've just begun to fight.
It's going to be hard to transcribe this. Perry's sentence construction is odd. He's rambling, it's peppered with religious references, he's squinting and stumbling. For such an important speech, it's astonishing that he's improvising.
Perry looks exhausted. He says: "There is no viable path forward for me today. Therefore I'm suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich."
He says of Gingrich that "we've had our differences", and adds: "Newt is not perfect, but who amongst us is?" Gingrich says there is "forgiveness for those who seek God", and that Perry believes in "the power of redemption". Gingrich is a "true conservative", he says.
Rick Perry's press conference is starting now. Flanked by his wife, he begins by thanking his campaign team, and says what a "privilege it is to learn and grow under you".
I think the issue was that didn't learn and grow enough, wasn't it?
I've just been speaking to our correspondent Ewen MacAskill who's at the other side of Charleston from me, waiting to get into the Rick Perry press conference. It sounds like something of a scrum.
Like his campaign, Perry's final press conference of the campaign was a shambles. He opted to hold it in a room too small for the press pack, with lots of journalists unable to get in. The short notice did not help either, with major networks unable to get to the hotel in north Charleston on time.
The warning comes: Some reporters will be shut out twitter.com/daveweigel/sta?
? daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 19, 2012
Meanwhile after the Iowa results fiasco, some are questioning why the state insists it has a near-divine right to be the first to vote in presidential nomination races.
Iowa GOP decides it can't figure out who won caucus this year. is.gd/vKjTPv Tell me again why they ought to go first?
? Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) January 19, 2012
They said it would get dirty, and it has. ABC News has released a preview of tonight's Nightline interview with Marianne Gingrich, second wife of the former House speaker. The most damaging line: she alleges Newt wanted an "open marriage", so he could have both a mistress and a wife.
She said when Gingrich admitted to a six-year affair with a Congressional aide, he asked her if she would share him with the other woman, Callista, who is now married to Gingrich.
"And I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do,'" Marianne Gingrich told ABC News. "He wanted an open marriage and I refused."
Marianne described her "shock" at Gingrich's behavior, including how she says she learned he conducted his affair with Callista "in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington."
"He always called me at night," she recalled, "and always ended with 'I love you.' Well, she was listening."
Readers will no doubt remember that Gingrich was at the forefront of those who condemned President Bill Clinton for his lack of moral leadership ? and is now leading the moral charge against gay marriage.
Back to those Iowa results, and the state GOP has confirmed the Des Moines Register exclusive that, of the votes that could be counted, Rick Santorum had 34 more than Mitt Romney in the final tally.
At a news conference, Iowa Republican party chairman Matt Strawn said he could not name official winner because some votes can't be counted. Results from eight of the state's 1,774 precincts are missing.
Just as I did on the early morning hours on January 4, I congratulate senator Santorum and governor. Romney on a hard-fought effort during the closest contest in caucus history.
Mitt Romney has attempted to brush off the flip, saying it amounted to a "virtual tie".
According to the certified results, Santorum got 29,839 votes with Romney at 29,805, a difference of 34. Ron Paul came in third with 26,036.
Could this be a nightmare scenario for Mitt Romney? Today it was announced that he didn't win Iowa after all, and now it's clear that Newt Gingrich is catching up in South Carolina. The idea of Romney's inevitability has been founded on the basis that he was on course to an unprecedented triple win in the first three states. If Gingrich pulls off a dramatic upset in South Carolina, that would mean Romney would only have won New Hampshire, his adopted home state. In that scenario most, if not all, bets would be off.
It seems that Newt Gingrich has been courting the Perry camp in the past few days, with Politico saying he has been repeatedly texting the Perry campaign manager Joe Allbaugh. Politico goes on to say:
The discord within the Perry campaign was evident even as the candidate prepared to drop out. Top officials in Texas said they were unaware of his intentions and as late as this morning said they genuinely didn't know whether he was still running.
Perry has been unpredictable before ? back in Texas to reassess his campaign's viability following his fifth place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Perry surprised even many in his inner circle by personally tweeting a message saying he was staying in the race, and heading to South Carolina to campaign.
Rick Perry will endorse Newt Gingrich when he speaks at 11am here in Charleston. Gingrich is certainly the man with the momentum at the moment, and this endorsement will be a huge shot in the arm ahead of tonight's debate.
Mark Halperin of Time magazine says Gingrich and Perry met secretly yesterday ? and speculates that if Perry channels is Texas fundrasing machine towards Gingrich, that would be an even more significant move.
Perry and Gingrich met secretly on Wednesday to discuss Perry's leaving the race .More tk.
? Mark Halperin (@Markhalperin) January 19, 2012
What if Perry gets his Texas money network to give to Newt -- and Newt's Super PAC?That would be a bigger deal than his endorsement.
? Mark Halperin (@Markhalperin) January 19, 2012
Rick Perry is understood to be holding a press conference at 11am to confirm that he is pulling out of the race later this morning.
CNN is reporting that Rick Perry, the Texas governor who entered the race as frontrunner but is now trailing all the other main candidates, will pull out of the race today. It's significant that CNN should break this story ?�the network is hosing the debate tonight, and if Perry has indicated he will not take part, they would be the first to know.
Newt Gingrich was on the Today show just after 7am this morning, and host Ann Curry pressed him hard on accusations that he had played the "race card" in order to gain ground in South Carolina, a state where, as Curry pointed out, the Confederate flag flies over the capitol building in Columbia ? a politically charged symbol that was supported by Republicans here. Gingrich was bullish, saying that the race card criticism was levelled by his oppponents who had "no defense of liberal solutions that have failed".
Curry also pressed him on whether he was worried what his former wife, Marianne, would say in an ABC interview tonight. He revealed that his daughters have written to the president of ABC news, asking him not to air the interview. "Intruding into family things that are more than a decade old is just wrong," he said. "I am a 68-year-old-granfather. People see how close I am to my wife Calista."
Ah, pity poor Newt, the cuddly grandfather.
Here's a full summary of the main news lines of the campaign today, compiled by Ryan Devereaux.
Republican party officials are set to announce that Mitt Romney's narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded. At 9:15am ET the chairman of Iowa's Republican party is expected to announce that the winner of the Iowa contest cannot be determined due to missing results from eight of the state's 1,774 precincts. Of the results that could be locate, officials say Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Romney.
The Iowa caucuses do not determine the number of delegates accorded to the winner of the contest, so the change-up does not materially alter the race for the Republican nomination. It may, however, provide a renewed sense of momentum for Rick Santorum as the candidates head into this weekend's primaries in South Carolina.
Newt Gingrich is enjoying a surge in popularity following Monday night's raucous South Carolina debate. A new NBC News/Marist poll shows that while Mitt Romney still leads the race by 10 points, Gingrich is gaining considerable ground. Coming into Monday night's debate Romney held a 15 point lead over Gingrich, with 37% of likely South Carolina primary voters expressing support for the former Massachusetts governor. By Tuesday Romney's lead over Gingrich had been cut to just five points. The former House Speaker received numerous rounds of applause Monday night for defending his characterization of Barack Obama as a "food stamp president" and calling on Romney to release his tax records.
Gingrich's popularity with cultural conservatives will be tested tonight as ABC is airs an interview with his second wife. His marriage to Marianne Gingrich has been the subject of much scrutiny. The former speaker reportedly proposed to Marianne while he was still married to his first wife and has admitted to infidelity with former congressional aide Callista Bisek, who went on to become his third wife. Gingrich says he and Marianne now have no relationship.
Candidates tonight take part in their final TV debate before Saturday's primary. The remaining five ? Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Ron Paul and Rick Perry ? will face off in Charleston, South Carolina in a two-hour debate sponsored by CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
Good morning: this is Matt Wells reporting from Charleston, South Carolina, and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Republican presidential nomination process. And the process itself is in some disarray this morning with the Iowa GOP announcing that it can't tell us who won the vote in its state.
On the night, it was announced that Mitt Romney had won by a wafer-thin margin of eight votes. Today, the Iowa GOP is due to announce that according to the results that it has audited, Rick Santorum snatched it by 34 votes.
But it's not prepared to issue a certified result, because votes from eight precincts are missing.
There'll be an official announcement from the Iowa GOP soon. Also today, there are signs that Newt Gingrich is building on his strong performance from Monday's TV debate ? with another one scheduled for tonight. And with Gingrich due to release his tax returns, it's shaping up to be a busy day.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/south-carolina-primary-iowa-results-live
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