Report: Newt to Launch Prez Bid Next Week

Hotline on Call reports:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich plans to officially enter the presidential race early next week, he told Hotline On Call before Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner.

"I'll be in by the 10th or 11th," Gingrich said, without elaborating on where or how he would announce his candidacy.

Gingrich had previously hinted that his announcement could come this week, telling reporters in Philadelphia on Thursday, "I would just say to folks who are really curious: Watch Facebook and Twitter in the next week. I think you'll have all the information you need."

But Gingrich walked back from that statement on Saturday, explaining that he hasn't yet completed the long and complex process of untangling himself from a web of business ventures that would complicate his candidacy in the eyes of the Federal Election Commission.

Gingrich spokesperson Rick Tyler cited those "business entanglements" and "contractual obligations" last week in explaining that Gingrich would not participate in the first GOP primary debate in South Carolina on Thursday. Participants in the debate are required to have filed paperwork for an exploratory committee with the FEC, which Gingrich has been unable to do.