Gingrich Campaign Fires Iowa Aide Who Called Mormonism a ‘Cult’
An aide to Newt Gingrich’s Republican presidential campaign in Iowa was dismissed after he called Mormonism a “cult” during a voter focus group.
“Craig Bergman agreed to step away from his role with Newt 2012 today,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said in a statement yesterday. “He made a comment to a focus group prior to becoming an employee that is inconsistent with Newt 2012’s pledge to run a positive and solutions-orientated campaign.”
Bergman had participated in a focus group of Iowa voters assembled by the Iowa Republican website and McClatchy newspapers.
“A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon,” Bergan said, according to the Iowa Republican. “There’s a thousand pastors ready to do that.”
Two of the Republican presidential candidates, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., are Mormons.
Gingrich, 68, who now leads in polls in three of the four states to vote first in the Republican primary season, has pledged to campaign in a “relentlessly positive” way.” His campaign released a letter yesterday from the candidate to supporters and staff calling on them to “stay positive.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Des Moines, Iowa, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
Gingrich Campaign Fires Iowa Aide
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, center, poses for a photograph with supporters at the Iowa State Fair August 11, 2011 in Des Moines.
Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, center, poses for a photograph with supporters at the Iowa State Fair August 11, 2011 in Des Moines. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Al Hunt, executive editor at Bloomberg News, talks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's fundraising efforts on Wall Street. Hunt speaks with Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)
Newt Gingrich
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, speak during the ABC News GOP Presidential debate on the campus of Drake University on December 10, 2011 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, speak during the ABC News GOP Presidential debate on the campus of Drake University on December 10, 2011 in Des Moines, Iowa. Photographer: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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