Crossfire's Newt Gingrich Touts His History Of Attacking Hillary Clinton To Promote Show

CNN Uses Crossfire Return As Another Opportunity To Capitalize Off Clinton's Name

Written by Jeremy Holden

Published

CNN is using 21-year-old footage of Newt Gingrich attacking Hillary Clinton to promote the return of Crossfire, which Gingrich will co-host, and promising that the show will fixate on Clinton for the next several years.

CNN plans to relaunch the franchise in September and is running promotions for the show leading up to its September 16 premiere. The New York Times reported earlier this month that Gingrich will be “the marquee attraction” on the show.

And if a promo running at CNN.com is any indication, Gingrich will use his perch to renew his decades-long campaign demonizing Hillary Clinton. The promo, billed as a return to “Classic Crossfire,” opens with the former Speaker of the House claiming: “The new Crossfire is going to bring a lot of new things to television, but it's also going to bring some that have been on a long time.”

The promo flashes back to an episode of Crossfire from 1992 where Gingrich declares that Clinton, then the wife of a presidential candidate, was fair game for attacks because she had opted to pursue a career:

GINGRICH: if Hillary Clinton has a public life, if she is a professional woman, who gave up baking cookies to have a full time profession, if she goes to the Bar Association luncheon to praise Anita Hill, if she is the head of the Children's Defense Fund at one point, if she's on the Legal Services Board as a full professional, I would assume she'd want to be in the fray.

In the decades-old clip, Gingrich excuses his position by saying that it is the cost women make by pursuing a career:

GINGRICH: It's a distinction that every professional woman in the United States has to make in terms of how they're dealt with. 

It's telling that in order to promote the new Crossfire Gingrich highlighted a segment arguing that Clinton brought attacks on herself by choosing to pursue a career

During the promotion for the new Crossfire, Gingrich promised that the show will focus attention on Clinton in the coming years.

CNN's use of Clinton to promote Crossfire comes as the network is under criticism for its decision to capitalize on Hillary Clinton's name by filming a documentary about the former first lady, Senator, and Secretary of State.