Edwards admits to affair
By Scott Helman and Brian Mooney, Globe Staff
Former North Carolina senator John Edwards, a leading Democratic presidential candidate this year and in 2004 who became one of the party's most influential voices, acknowledged today that he had an extramarital affair with a former campaign aide and had lied about it repeatedly.
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| Rielle Hunter (AP) |
Edwards admitted to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an ABC News interview that will air tonight on Nightline at 11:30 p.m.
In the interview, he said that the affair occurred while his wife Elizabeth's cancer was in remission. He denied that he fathered the aide's baby daughter, and offered to take a paternity test to prove it.
In a statement released late this afternoon, he said he was "ashamed of my conduct and my choices."
"It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry," said Edwards, 55. "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up -- feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help."
The surprise admission by Edwards, prompted initially by reports on the affair in the National Enquirer, severely damages his political future, perhaps irreparably, according to analysts and former associates.
Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, was not considered a serious contender to be Senator Barack Obama's running mate this year, but he had been mentioned as a potential cabinet secretary and speaker at this month's Democratic National Convention. He was also expected to help Obama on the stump, particularly among the white, lower- and middle-class voters who flocked to him during the primaries.
Democratic media consultant Thomas "Tad" Devine, who knows the Edwardses well, said the revelation of the affair is politically devastating and promises to keep Edwards a good distance from Obama's general election campaign.
"In terms of politics, I do believe that doing anything now is not tenable," said Devine, who worked on Edwards's successful 1998 US Senate campaign. "That means actively campaigning for Barack Obama or having a role at the convention. He'd be a huge distraction."
The affair, according to ABC, was with Hunter, whose company was paid more than $100,000 from July 2006 through April 2007 by Edwards's political action committee to produce web documentaries. Hunter, who is in her early 40s and traveled with Edwards on the campaign trail and to Africa, lacked experience in video production, ABC reported, and the Associated Press reported that the company produced short videos of Edwards in informal settings. Edwards told the network the affair began after she was hired.
The story was first broken last fall by the Enquirer. At the time, Edward, his aides, and Hunter insisted there was nothing to it.
"The story is false," Edwards told reporters, calling the allegation "untrue" and "ridiculous." He noted he had been in love with Elizabeth, his wife since 1977, for more than 30 years. "As anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being -- warm, loving, beautiful, sexy, and as good a person as I have ever known."
Last month, Edwards dubbed the story "tabloid trash."
"I wanted to keep this mistake I had made two years previously private," he says in the ABC interview.
But the Enquirer kept publishing new reports about it, including one with photos of Edwards visiting Hunter and purportedly holding her daughter at a Beverly Hills hotel last month. Edwards confirmed in the ABC interview that he had made the visit. He denied the Enquirer's report that he was the father of Hunter's daughter, who was born in February, saying the affair ended too soon, but said he had not taken a paternity test. Edwards said in his statement that he was willing to take one.
"I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established," he said.
The Charlotte Observer reported last week that Hunter's daughter's birth certificate does not list her father. A former Edwards staffer, Andrew Young, has claimed he is her father.
The Enquirer also reported that a wealthy Edwards associate had paid Hunter money to help cover up the affair. Edwards said in his statement that he had no involvement in such a scheme, but told ABC that he would investigate whether friends or supporters had made such payments without his knowledge. ABC is reporting that Edwards's former national campaign finance chairman acknowledged making payments to Hunter and others without the former senator's knowledge.
Edwards said in the statement that the affair was brief, beginning and ending in 2006. He said he told his wife about it at the time and asked for "forgiveness." "She was mad, she was angry, I think furious would be a good way to describe it," Edwards told ABC.
But Edwards told ABC that he had not told Elizabeth about last month's visit to Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards is a well-respected lawyer, health care activist, and Democratic leader in her own right who campaigned forcefully for her husband despite being diagnosed with cancer in 2004. The couple is scheduled to speak at "A Conversation with John and Elizabeth Edwards" at Salem State College on Sept. 23.
"There are two problems here: One is personal, and he and has family will have to work that out, and the other is that he apparently lied repeatedly about this," said Robert Shrum, a long-time Democratic strategist who also helped Edwards win election to the Senate in 1998. "It's tragic for [Elizabeth] and the kids ... I think as a serious political candidate it would be very hard for him to be that again or to have a major job in government. The lying is a big part of that."
Edwards's admission of the affair deals a serious blow to his image as a tough, compassionate, and honest fighter for the poor and middle class, a persona he cultivated successfully during the Democratic primaries. He placed second behind Obama in the Iowa caucuses in January, but dropped out of the race on Jan. 30 after a poor showing in his native South Carolina.
"It's very disappointing. I'm just taken aback," said Rob Werner, a city councilor in Concord, N.H., who supported Edwards in both presidential campaigns and spent a great deal of time with him on the trail.
"My observation was that he seemed very sincere," Werner said. "It never ceases to amaze me how often this happens."
David Bonior, Edwards's campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, angrily said that Edwards had "betrayed" his backers. "Thousands of friends of the senator's and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let him down," Bonior told the Associated Press.
Obama's campaign declined to comment. An ashen Hillary Clinton, campaigning for Obama in Las Vegas, said, "My thoughts and prayers are with the Edwards family, and that's all I have to say."
wasn't this "breaking news" about a week ago?
No surprise here. I would hesitate characterizing him as "charismatic". The guy is a dirt bag and lives his life by a double standard - his and the one HE thinks we need to live under. I was glad to see him "sit down" knowing he had no chance of being a viable presidential candidate. I feel sorry for his wife as their marriage will now be dragged through the press.
When are people in this country going to face the fact that behavior such as this indicates a SERIOUS character flaw?
Sex and the Suffragettes
Politicians will be politicians!
Betcha don't know which president had a love child while campaigning for office - and how that helped women win the vote.
Most people are quite a bit in the dark about HOW women won the vote.
Now finding out the sexy, shocking truth is as easy as opening your e-mail.
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There are weddings and funerals, babies in peril, damsels in distress, war, peace, prohibition, broken hearts and lots of hot affairs on the rocky road to the ballot box.
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I am a 54 year old woman, twice married, mother of two, liberal
democrat agnostic and I now think that John Edwards is a pig.
I'm not sure what is so surprising here.. many men and women have affairs, that doesn't make them pigs, it just makes them human. Most countries don't view affairs with the same shame that we do, we have the highest standards in the world when it comes to affairs.
For many people its just human nature, but politicians just seem to have cornered the market on it...
He has no shame what so ever, Did he want to get caught for some bizarre reason. For men marriage does not mean fidelity. It is the lying that bothers me more than the sexual acts themselves, its the fact that he is a well known politician and as far as I can see not to clever, he should know these things are easy to figure out, the press is relentless. Was it that he just couldn't control himself? Was he is love or lust or just needed to be caught? I bet that child is his and if so then she is a real piece of work.
Let's hear the rest of the story such as Edwards' wholesale denials all along. His mentor must be Bill "I did not have sex with that woman" Clinton:
"The story is false, It's completely untrue, it's ridiculous!".
And yes, how about an Obama Fist Pump for that stand-up guy of a loyal campaign staffer who takes the credit for fathering the child. Was this a menage-a-trois?
Don't worry, Obama will still select Edwards as his VP choice given Obama's STELLAR judgment about his close advisors, spiritual or otherwise.
What a SLIMEY political party leadership!!
No surprise here. I would hesitate characterizing him as "charismatic". The guy is a dirt bag and lives his life by a double standard - his and the one HE thinks we need to live under. I was glad to see him "sit down" knowing he had no chance of being a viable presidential candidate. I feel sorry for his wife as their marriage will now be dragged through the press.
When are people in this country going to face the fact that behavior such as this indicates a SERIOUS character flaw?
Sex and the Suffragettes
Politicians will be politicians!
Betcha don't know which president had a love child while campaigning for office - and how that helped women win the vote.
Most people are quite a bit in the dark about HOW women won the vote.
Now finding out the sexy, shocking truth is as easy as opening your e-mail.
"The Privilege of Voting" is a new historical e-mail series that follows eight women from 1912 to 1920 to reveal the twists and turns that led to women winning the vote in England and America.
Two of the most beautiful and outspoken suffragettes -- Alice Paul and Emmeline Pankhurst are depicted, along with Edith Wharton, Isadora Duncan, Alice Roosevelt, and two stunning presidential mistresses.
There are weddings and funerals, babies in peril, damsels in distress, war, peace, prohibition, broken hearts and lots of hot affairs on the rocky road to the ballot box.
The best part is it's ALL true!
Presented via e-mail in a unique, sequential, interwoven short-story format called Coffeebreak Readers that makes discovering these delightful heroines fast and FUN!
Each action-packed e-mail episode takes about 10 minutes to read - perfect to enjoy on coffeebreaks, or anytime.
Subscribe and get free twice-weekly e-mails at:
www.CoffeebreakReaders.com/tpovpage.html
Couldn't have happened to a bigger slimeball. The ambulance chaser finally gets his reward. He always was a phony. The Breck Girl, as Rush calls him. Now he can finally go away once and for all, and quit bothering the American public. Bye John. And I hope the door hits you on the way out. Hard!
I feel sorry for the Edwards family. No one knows what happens in life and I find it amazing that Rielle Hunter is allowed to just knock around any where she likes and no one asks the question of her, "How could you?" That "how could you" is in many facets...........sleep with a married man.........betray his wife's trust..........go public and hurt so many people without even proving that you have any grounds. Why did this have to be public? Is that the only way that she thought that she could perhaps scam money from anyone? Why didn't she take the precautions to not get pregnant if this child is indeed Mr. Edwards. Why use her child when there is a possibility that the child is not Mr. Edwards? I believe it was to make a big splash in the papers. Remember there are no illegitimate children only illegitimate parents! Do I feel bad that Mr. Edwards did this? Sure. But not like he and his family do. Do I blame Ms.Hunter more? You bet I do. It seems that she had an agenda. Would I vote for Mr. Edwards.........Yes I Would. Just because he tried to protect his family with a denial does not constitute anything. Do you think that the NH council man never lied or did something that he does not want anyone to know about? Get real people! Am I a long time happily married woman? Yes I am, but there is always problems and all of you know it.
So.........Let you who is without sin........cast the first stone! Keep the Edwards in your prayers people. Kathern
A gonad motivated, egotistical, democratic lawyer?.....You just know he's lying when his lips are moving.
Democrats are the BIGGEST hypocrits in the world. At least the Chinese Government is consistent...you know what to expect.
Mr. Edwards, you are a HUGE SLIME BAG X 3, a LYING DEMOCRAT, A HUSBAND WHO CHEATS ON HIS AILING WIFE AND A BACK STABBER WHO VISITED THE WOMAN OF HIS LUSTY DESIRES, AFTER HIS HEARTSICK WIFE FORGAVE HIM....YOU MAKE ME PUKE MORE THAN YOUR WIFE'S CHEMOTHERAPY.
Y
he was a personal injury lawyer. lowest of the low. seriously, why is anyone surprised?
The NY Times splattered a bogus story about a McCain affair that never happened on PAGE 1.
But they (and every other liberal media source) sat on this story for one year with blatant evidence.
You can take it to the bank that if this were a Mitt Romney (or any Republican) this would have been the #1 news story for weeks.
Add the Edwards case with the Obama suckup campaign of the lib media and you get overwhelming samples of LIBERAL MEDIA BIAS.
Who really cares?
The only person that any of this should matter to is Mrs. Edwards and the rest of their family.
So you really think he is the only one screwing around in Washington? Exactly. Move along, nothing new to see here.
Stop looking towards politicians, clerics, celebrities, athletes, police, firemen and teachers etc, as some sort of moral compass. They are human, and humans have proven, since the begining of time, that they will make mistakes and act on every stupid idea that comes to mind.
If John Edwards were a Republican he'd be dead meat. However, because he's a liberal democrat the biased press will provide minimal coverage to this and he'll likely keep his political life alive.
Nice to see the liberal media has finally decided to cover this, all it took was Edwards confessing.
What's surprising is anyone who is acting shocked. Any time you get asked if you're having an affair or fathered a child, wth do think the answer is? Reporters don't sit around and make up questions for the fun of it.
According to some research studies, most married people have extramarital affairs. Why should anybody be surprised that powerful politicians have affairs? I am watching this guy on channel 7 who said Edwards is a fake, a wide-eyed liar who touted honesty and integrity as his virtues. Who else is so honest and wholesome? I bet you Obama has had affairs too, just wait a little longer and you'll hear all about it. :-)
What does anyone expect? He was a personal injury lawyer, after all. Lowest of the low.
At least this might put the kibosh on the rumor
that he was being considered for A.G. in the
forthcoming administration !
I think it is easier to judge when the schoes are not placed on your eet. No one is perfect and with that said, we shuld sweep around our door step before we stand on someone elses porch. Yes he had an affair, and that placed a dark clood over the democratic party, but it will not change the fact that John Edwards have done a lot for the party, and next no one will remember this.
Some guys(politician) never learn a thing or one from others of their own surrounding because they are manipulated themselves with their own definition of being a politician.In other words these type of politician that get caught with sexual scandals and other dishonest dealings are selfish and no regards for the main reason and purpose of their responsibilities and that is to serve the public with full honesty and that should be their ultimate aim.Is this the type of leaders we can rely on to be examples for childrens of the nation,it is a disgrace to the Party Democrat or Republican to support these type of leaders.It seems that America is the prime examples for the rest of the world in most issues including moral standards and family values and if our leaders start acting like Sodom and Comorro then all the hard work and effort to educate the world to be better and live in peace and love and that includes love thy wife only and not another woman all is in vain and pointless.It is not a joke to be a public figure.
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