GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich in spat with college student

Fresh off a spat with a penguin that the Associated Press reported left him wearing a bandage, Newt Gingrich has gotten into another kerfuffle, this time with a University of North Carolina college student.

Memet Walker, a reporter for the Daily Tar Heel college newspaper claims a Gingrich aid cut a scheduled interview short because the Gingrich camp didn't like the first question. 

"There I was Saturday, standing alone with my recorder in a quiet stupor, as my subject, Newt Gingrich, rushed away," Walker wrote in the Daily Tar Heel.

Yahoo News said a Gingrich aid told it an interview was never planned.

Meanwhile, Gingrich press secretary R.C. Hammond continued to spar with Walker on Twitter this afternoon. "Shouting questions as someone leaves a press avail is not abruptly leaving a planed interview. Facts not fiction, kid," Hammond tweeted. 

Of course, he likely meant "planned interview" instead of "planed interview." 

Another Walker aid told the Washington Post the campaign was trying to give Walker a few minutes for an exclusive interview with Gingrich. But Bell told the newspaper Walker resorted to shouting his questions – starting with one about a possible Rick Santorum endorsement. 

Having been US House Speaker for several years, Gingrich has no doubt had reporters shout questions at him before. Reporters covering lawmakers often participate in scrums where groups of reporters crowd around them, shouting out questions and occasionally following them down city streets or the halls of Congress. 

Walker in his Daily Tar Heel piece said he was trying to ask Gingrich about Fox News. Gingrich last week told the world he felt his former employer Fox News was more biased than CNN. "I was surprised that they were so surprised I might ask it," Walker wrote. 

A recording of the incident has yet to surface. 

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