Fox News has confirmed Newt Gingrich met with Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades on Monday to talk about how the former House Speaker can assist as a surrogate and fundraiser for the presumptive Republican nominee.

At the meeting, the Romney campaign also offered to connect Gingrich with their network of donors as a way to help retire some of his campaign debts. The March FEC filing shows Gingrich holding $4.3 million in debts at the end of the month, although the campaign emphasizes that half a million has since been paid off and there is a plan in place to pay the rest.

"The Romney campaign will give us access to some of their networks but it will be our responsibility to raise the money," said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond. "While campaigning in support of Romney, the party, and congressional candidates, we will also hold separate events to raise money to pay off debts."

Gingrich will announce the suspension of his presidential campaign on Wednesday at the Hilton in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.

The face-to-face meeting with Rhoades took place just across the street from the hotel at Gingrich's campaign headquarters. The meeting came after nearly two weeks of talks between the campaigns, including conversations between Gingrich and Romney adviser Ed Gillespie.

At the meeting, Gingrich offered some of his ideas and suggestions to the Romney campaign, especially on the importance of minority outreach. (read more)

Hours after Rick Santorum bowed out of the Presidential race, front-runner and now presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney offered some strong words of support for his toughest opponent, before immediately pivoting to his upcoming general election battle against President Obama.

“He has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues he cares very deeply about and has been able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and in himself,” Romney said about Santorum while speaking at a steel plant in Wilmington, DE. “He will continue to have a major role in the Republican Party.”

Romney appeared at ease and upbeat during the event, even taking unplanned questions from the audience.  

That could be because Santorum’s exit essentially clears the path for Romney to the nomination. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul remain in the race, but neither has a viable path to attaining the 1144 delegates needed.  The Republican Party is falling into step, immediately coalescing around him. (read more)

Hours after quitting the presidential race, Rick Santorum sat down with one of his biggest supporters, Dr. James Dobson, to reflect on the day’s events.

“I can't say it was an emotional moment for me,” Santorum said of his announcement in Gettysburg. “I know it was a little tougher for the family, always is tougher for the family."

His wife Karen had also been scheduled to appear at the Lancaster Bible College forum, but Dobson told the audience before Santorum took the stage that "she just didn't feel she had the emotional strength to come" given the turn of events with the campaign and their daughter Bella’s bout with pneumonia.

Standing next to her husband at Gettysburg, Karen had been seen with tears in her eyes.

“When you’re out there in the arena, and the adrenaline is flowing, and you’re getting hit, and you’re hitting back, and sort of going back and forth It's different than being on the sidelines and seeing the people, the person you love being hit. It hurts more,” Santorum said of the campaign’s toll on his family. “And so it was a little tougher for Karen and the kids. They did an amazing job as they always have in standing behind me in every sense of the word." (read more)

It is called a tradition unlike any other and Thursday, the Masters golf tournament and its home course, the Augusta National Golf Club, made it onto a political stage unlike any other as the club's exclusion of female members was a topic of discussion for both President Obama's spokesman and the GOP frontrunner seeking the White House.

The private club has never admitted women members and though the policy has been protested in the past, the controversy died down in recent years. Typically the chief executives of companies that sponsor The Masters, the first of professional golf's major tournaments, gain membership to Augusta National. This year IBM is a sponsor but its female CEO Virginia Rometty hasn't been offered a spot.

With the tournament kicking off Thursday, reporters at the daily briefing asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney whether the president believes Rometty should be admitted.

"Well, the president's answer to this question is yes," Carney said. "He believes -- his personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club."

Carney wouldn't say whether the president, an avid golfer who has hit the links 93 times since becoming president, would play at a club that excluded women. (read more)

Denied all immediate avenues to securing the nomination and working with little more than the sheer force of his personality, Newt Gingrich arrived on the campus of Georgetown Tuesday ready to talk about big ideas and take questions from students  – but definitely, it was clear, not from the press.

Whisked in and out of the auditorium by Secret Service, Gingrich effectively dodged the Washington press corp that had gathered in numbers to catch him at his first public appearance since his campaign officially announced it was laying off a third of its already guerilla-sized campaign staff and replacing the campaign manager.

“There are two large principles that led me to decide to run for president,” Gingrich began, in what would be a reiteration of the big ideas address he gave to students at Salisbury University in Maryland the day before. “And it has been an interesting process to try to communicate them and frankly much more difficult than I thought it would be. One was values and the other was innovation.”

He ranted about political leadership: “I would say the greatest frustration I’ve had since leaving the speakership is the denseness of Washington in resisting new ideas.” (read more)

On the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Mitt Romney pegged Rick Santorum as "press secretary" in a friendly game of word association. 

The banter began when Leno teased Romney for saying he hadn't made a list regarding potential Vice Presidential picks, arguing it would be "presumptuous." 

"I am not even running, and I have made a list," Leno joked. 

The late night talk show host proceeded to ask Romney to offer one word answers to describe several prominent Republicans. Romney's answers drew large laughs from the crowd. 

He called Chris Christie "indomitable," Paul Ryan "creative," Nikki Haley "energetic," Donald Trump "huge," and Rick Santorum "press secretary."

The swipe was seemingly aimed at Santorum's recent profanity-laced outburst on the press at an event in Wisconsin.  But it wasn't all laughs for Romney on the show. 

Leno grilled the Presidential candidate on various issues including Obama's controversial healthcare law presently being heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. Romney vowed again to repeal and replace ObamaCare. (read more)

While she remains the only former Republican 2012 contender yet to endorse another candidate, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann declares it’s time for the party to unify.

She told Fox News host Judge Jeanine she has not endorsed a candidate because she does not want to be a divisive voice in the party.

“When I left the presidential field, I didn't want give my voice to one candidate, because I want the people to decide. I want to bring the tea party, the evangelicals, and the conservatives together. That's the coalition we need to win together,” she said. “I want to unify, unify, unify."

The recent rhetoric on the campaign trail has been anything but “unifying."

Earlier this week, Rick Santorum declared that if the choice was between Mitt Romney and President Obama, “we may as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk in what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.”  

After being dubbed, “the most valuable player on President Obama’s team” by one of Romney’s political directors, Santorum walked back that statement and said “Over my dead body would I vote for Obama.” (read more)

If the contest for the Republican presidential nomination is like a game of football, then Newt Gingrich predicts Mitt Romney will lose the game in the second half. 

On the eve of the primaries in Mississippi and Alabama, the presidential candidate told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren he stands a “good chance” in both states Tuesday. However, he expects the vote to be so close that he’ll move on regardless of whether or not he wins either state.

“The biggest story tomorrow night's going to be simple: Governor Romney will get at most one out of every three delegates,” Gingrich said.

He called Romney the weakest frontrunner in over 90 years, and predicted the former Massachusetts governor will not be able to secure 1144 delegates necessary to lock up the nomination.

Responding to Carl Cameron's exclusive report that sources close to Gingrich were floating the idea of a possible Gingrich-Perry ticket, the candidate said he hasn’t “talked directly to Perry.”

“I think it's way to premature to talk to anybody about anything,” said Gingrich, who said he was more concerned with getting the nomination. (read more)

Newt Gingrich said his spokesman R.C. Hammond was joking when he told reporters that Mitt Romney needs to drop out for Gingrich to reach the Republican National Convention.

“R.C. was joking. Of course we can go to Tampa with Mitt in the race,” the candidate said.

“He said it multiple times,” Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal countered at the media avail.

“I know, but he was joking multiple times,” Gingrich responded. “Toby and I have both talked to him about this, and Toby has been trying to...Toby is his dog, for those of you don’t know.”

He looked at the reporters with an amused look on his face.

“Toby has been trying to explain to him sometimes the press doesn't pick up when he is speaking humorously,” Gingrich said.

The candidate has at times referred to his spokesman’s pet beagle to diffuse the tension of tough questions from reporters.

"We can go to Tampa,” he insisted. “Look, this could be like the NCAA Final Four with no elimination."

"You could have all four of us at Tampa. You could even have number five and number six if somebody gets excited and jumps in."

GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich is planning to release a 30-minute long video on gas prices and the economy, a senior adviser to Gingrich told Fox News.

Gingrich quietly shot the video recently in Los Angeles. His campaign hopes the video highlights what they believe is their strength in the race: a long, substantive case against President Obama.

The campaign is planning on buying ad time on local TV stations in key states to air the video. The adviser says the first planned purchase of the video is in Spokane, Washington, where Gingrich has been campaigning heavily in preparation for the state's upcoming caucus.

In the video, Gingrich is seen speaking directly to the camera. He apparently was given a script, but tossed it and spoke off the top of his head.

Gingrich may have referenced the video in an interview with Fox News Channel Tuesday night, where he said he was "gonna find ways to communicate " with the American public.

"I like debates, happens to be good for me, if they're afraid to debate that's fine," he said. "I find other ways to communicate with people with or without their debating."