Donald Trump's potential running mate Newt Gingrich still owes money on his last presidential campaign, according to
The Daily Beast.
"I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt," Gingrich said in 2011 about his leadership as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s, both in a campaign ad and during a Republican presidential debate, according to
Politifact. But Newt 2012, Gingrich's presidential campaign organization, still has $4.63 million in outstanding debt.
Gingrich owes almost $1 million to Moby Dick Airways for flights on private jets to campaign events across the country, $400,000 to the Patriot Group for security, and $128,000 to the Winston Group, a Republican polling company. The campaign also owes smaller amounts in unpaid office rent, salaries and even $718 for catering, according to the Daily Beast.
"Eventually, if a company leaves debts outstanding it becomes an illegal contribution," Larry Noble, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, told the Daily Beast. "So the companies have to show they are making normal and usual efforts to collect the debt."
To pay off the debt, Gingrich founded the Committee for America, a joint fundraising group that raised only $27,545 in two years since he began it in 2013, according to
Politico.
This isn't the first time a Gingrich company encountered financial problems. When Gingrich began focusing on his presidential aspirations in 2011, it led to the collapse of two of his organizations, American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. Despite having successfully raised over $50 million each, both entities quickly sank into bankruptcy once Gingrich began campaigning for the 2012 Republican nomination.
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