Wow, I would hope that “sound bite” (that his daughter was an expense) wouldn’t come back to haunt him. It did not come across that way to me at all. It came across as Wallace hounding him about why he didn’t pay more.
I think I would have turned the tables and asked Wallace how much HE gave to charity, and by the way, Chris, why not ask a more relevant question like about, oh, I don’t know....the economy????
I doubt most people would pick up on it—maybe I’ve become paranoid about our corrupt, evil press but I’ve seen them twist little things, nothings really, into big things with some success and I worry every time I hear one of our guys say something that can be twisted.
I think the problem was that he let Wallace push him around with it as though he was guilty of something which he was NOT!
I agree that he should have shut them down right off—’In the face of a multi-trillion and growing deficit, do you really think my charity amount is an issue. Let’s stick to issues and not personal attacks, Chris!”
I could see Newt saying something like that and the attack would die on Wallace’s lips.