(Image source: ABC)

BY ZACH TOOMBS

Newt Gingrich’s second wife once said she could end the candidate’s political career with a single interview. As CNN reports, that interview comes Thursday on ABC.

“ABC News is about to hit the airwaves with an interview with Marianne Gingrich -- that’s his second wife -- on whom he is reported to have cheated and is now with his third wife, Callista.”

Gingrich tried to get out in front of the story, speaking to The Today Show Thursday.

“I’m not going to say anything negative about Marianne. My two daughters, Kathy and Jackie, have sent a letter to the president of ABC News saying, from a family perspective, they think this is totally wrong.”

The Drudge Report broke the story Wednesday and reported on another big controversy surrounding the interview -- conflict within ABC over when to air the sit-down with Marianne Gingrich.

“… a ‘civil war’ has erupted inside of the network, an insider claims, on exactly when the confession will air! ABCNEWS suits determined it would be ‘unethical’ to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary, a curious decision, one insider argued, since the network has aggressively been reporting on other candidates.”

Talking to The Huffington Post, ABC News staffers downplayed that report but acknowledged there has been some debate over when to air the interview.

“ABC staffers were caught by surprise at the news, telling The Huffington Post that if there was a ‘civil war,’ they hadn't heard about it. That doesn't mean there wasn't any debate among ABC executives over when to air the interview, but simply that the war certainly wasn't raging through the newsroom.”

Still, ABC’s timing has many pundits asking, “why now?”

That includes Poynter’s Al Tompkins, who writes:

“The time for these kinds of interviews, if there is a time for them at all, is when the candidate announces for office not days before a pivotal primary.”

But on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mark Halperin offers this defense of ABC’s decision.

“It’s always true that you have to work on stories, and you can’t air them until they’re ready. Sometimes, by just happenstance, they’re only ready on the eve of a political event... The alternative is to wait until after. Let’s say Newt Gingrich wins the South Carolina primary and they air it next week. Somebody would say, why didn’t you give voters all the information they needed?”

Thursday morning, ABC released this 30-second preview of the interview -- a sign of allegations to come against Newt Gingrich.

MARIANNE GINGRICH: “He was asking to have an open marriage, and I refused.”
BRIAN ROSS: “He wanted an open marriage?”
GINGRICH: “Yeah, that I accept the fact that he has somebody else in his life.”
ROSS: “And you said...?”
GINGRICH: “No.”

How the interview will affect South Carolina’s sizeable evangelical voting block could decide the fate of Gingrich’s campaign. The interview will air on ABC’s Nightline tonight at 11:35 Eastern.