The long goodbye, Gingrich will exit Wednesday

As we originally reported last week, sources inside the Gingrich capaign said the former Speaker would formally suspend his campaign on Tuesday, May 1, and back Mitt Romney. Today the Gingrich campaign put out a “goodbye” video and now sources say he will officially suspend his campaign sometime Wednesday afternoon on May 2.

Report from CNN:

Soon to be former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Tuesday thanked his supporters and vowed to continue working to defeat President Barack Obama via web video ahead of his official campaign suspension on Wednesday.

“Because of your help and your support, we were able to put up a terrific campaign, and I want you to know that Callista and I are both very grateful to everybody across the country,” Gingrich said. “I want you to know that we’re going to continue out there on the road. Both Callista and I will be talking, campaigning, making speeches, doing everything we can to help defeat Barack Obama.”

The former House speaker, who announced his White House bid last May, is scheduled to suspend his campaign in the afternoon on Wednesday and back Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Although Romney will be in the Washington, DC area during the day, sources familiar with the session told CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger not to expect Romney to be in attendance at the announcement.

Sources previously told CNN Political Director Mark Preston Gingrich is expected to endorse Romney.

While Romney is not expected at the Wednesday afternoon event, the Romney and Gingrich campaigns have discussed the two appearing at a second event in the near future, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The two campaigns have had ongoing talks since Gingrich signalled last week he was going to pull out.

Gingrich can help show some unity but his campaign has been over for several weeks now, maybe even a month or more. Ever since he crested winning his home state of Georgia, Gingrich has been on a downward trajectory.