Edwards admits to having affair The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign. Acknowledging a sex scandal he had dismissed as “tabloid trash” only last month, Edwards said he had told his wife and family long ago, but “I had hoped that it would never become public.” He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father. The former North Carolina senator, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, confessed to ABC News that he had lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27 this year, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California. In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Elizabeth Edwards confirmed that her husband had confessed the extramarital affair to her in 2006 but that after a “long and painful process” she was now standing by him. After the story broke Friday, Edwards released a statement that said, “In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public.” “I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices,” he said. “With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006, and today I take full responsibility publicly.” Edwards declared his presidential candidacy in December 2006. His wife was at his side that day and campaigned enthusiastically with him and by herself in the months that followed. She announced in March 2007 that her cancer, formerly in remission, had returned and there apparently was no cure. She and her husband said it was important for the campaign to continue. Edwards dropped out midway through this year’s primaries after it became apparent he could not keep up with front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He recently endorsed Obama and has been mentioned as a possible running mate. In his statement, he said, “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. “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.”
Other former aides said they forgave Edwards the lie.
“He was running for president. What’s he supposed to do? Admit it?” asked a former aide.
Quoted Text
Edwards had cast himself in his political career as an exemplar of a moral life and a good marriage, and he was a harsh critic of former President Bill Clinton for his Oval Office affair.
“I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter,” Edwards said in 1999. “It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen.”
Not only lying as a candidate, but the lies, deceit and harm he's done to his terminally ill wife. Of course she "forgives" him - the woman is dying, this is the only man she's ever loved, and he betrayed her. She's terminally ill, with God only knows HOW much more time to live - what's she gonna do, divorce him? She doesn't need the stress of that. What he's done to her is reprehensible. This makes me SICK.
It's funny to watch liberal CNN report this about 'their own'.
It IS an unfortunate situation, but sadly, this behavior happens everyday to everyday people. And like Spitzer's wife and so many of the political 'better halves'....as long as they are in the lime light and the taxpayer's bucks are rolling in....they really don't give a damn what their counterpart is doing. Their lives are NOT like the average taxpayer's life. And remember....the 'better halves' are living in the lap of luxury from our tax dollar. And Mrs. Edwards, probably gets better medical treatment than we do. So he cheated. No big whoop here. Mrs. Edwards will fair for the better, you can be sure!
Ya know what would concern me even more? Did Mr. Edwards and his mistress benefit legally/illegally from our tax dollar or from the Democratic campaign contributions? Now that is what I would like to know.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father.
is this true??? If so,,,,she must be a home wrecker.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Ya, the bottom line is, he had an affair with this woman. We're supposed to believe that one of his staff ALSO had a relationship with her, and fathered a baby with her, yet she provides no fathers name on the birth certificate and refuses to allow a DNA test on the baby (fine, that's her right).
Now, if she isn't a common "whore" I don't know what is - sleeps with multiple men, takes >$100,000 for designing an ad when she's never done that before, and interferes in relationships between at least one husband and his sick wife.
She's a whore, he's a pig - and I'm not sure what to call this supposed "father" that edwards is paying for. Maybe edwards and his "staffer" are having some kind of sick 3 way, I dont know, but at this point, nothing would be a shock after what he's done.
I don't think there are pigs, whores or sluts anymore. I think the new politically correct word for her is 'mistress' or the 'other woman'. And for the guy, well, there is always the 'mid-life crisis' thing! Women get the 'name calling' and the men get the excuses!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
It's not personal business when you were a presidential candidate who ran on a platform of being a wholesome family man who condemned Clinton for doing the same thing saying anyone who would lie about the affair to the people doesn't deserve to be president. It goes to his character and he should never run for political office again or be appointed to one.
I personally could care less. It's more like a circus act!! I just love watching the liberal media having to beat up on one of their own. Too funny!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Even By Trial Lawyer Standards, Edwards A Real Sleazebag by Ann Coulter (more by this author) Posted 08/13/2008 ET
The good news: DNA testing has confirmed that John Edwards is not the father of Rielle Hunter's baby.
The bad news: The father is Bill Clinton.
Ha ha -- just kidding! It's almost impossible to get pregnant by having the type of sex Bill Clinton prefers.
Also, by now, everyone has heard the news that Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, has refused to grant a paternity test.
I wonder if Edwards knew that when he was making his chesty offer to take a paternity test? Edwards gushed to ABC's Bob Woodruff: "I would welcome participating in a paternity test, be happy to participate in one ... happy to take a paternity test and would love to see it happen."
As Edwards knows, our paternity laws were written by Gloria Steinem, so if the mother doesn't want a paternity test, it can't happen. So when Woodruff asked if he was going to actually take the paternity test soon, Edwards quickly noted, "I'm only one side of the test."
With Rielle in on the scam, Edwards could boldly demand a paternity test and then self-righteously defend his mistress's decision to refuse a paternity test. How dare you gainsay this woman's right to her privacy! Because if there's one person who's gone the extra mile to keep Hunter from becoming a public figure, it's John Edwards.
Edwards is closely following the Kennedy model of responding to charges of misconduct. First, admit only as much as can be currently proved. Second, get the other party to block any further investigation. I guess he really is "Kennedy-esque"!
For example, when the cops found DNA on the murdered body of Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn., the Kennedy suspect, Michael Skakel, suddenly remembered he had been up in a tree that night masturbating! (Talk about a tree-hugger.) You can see how something like that could slip your mind.
After Teddy Kennedy plunged his car off the Chappaquiddick Bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne in it and then failed to report the accident for nine hours, Kennedy admitted he had driven off the bridge -- but said he was in a state of shock for the next nine hours, preventing him from reporting the submerged car with a woman trapped in it.
Indeed, Kennedy was so disoriented he was barely able to dream up a highly unlikely alibi.
The historical parallel to Edwards' pincer move with Rielle Hunter is that Kennedy ostentatiously demanded a full investigation -- while the Kopechne family stoutly objected to an autopsy of their daughter.
According to Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-up by Leo Damore, the evidence suggested that Kopechne died gasping for breath in the car while Teddy Kennedy was busy trying to convince various people to say that they were driving his car.
There were lots of houses nearby with lights on, but Kennedy avoided them after he escaped from the car, so he could sneak back to his hotel undetected and begin establishing an alibi. Evidently, Kennedy is better than Edwards at sneaking into and out of hotels.
If Mary Jo had suffocated, then she had been alive for hours after the car plunged into the water. But an autopsy was required to determine whether Kopechne had drowned or suffocated.
Both the coroner and the diver who retrieved Mary Jo's body from the car believed Mary Jo had suffocated, not drowned. The diver found her body contorted in the back of the submerged car as if she had been trying to press her face into the last air pocket in the car. The coroner concluded there wasn't enough water in Mary Jo's body to indicate a drowning.
But for the first time in Massachusetts history, no autopsy was performed in a possible manslaughter case. Mary Jo was buried within about an hour of her body being pulled out of the channel under the Chappaquiddick Bridge.
Naturally, Kennedy wanted a thorough investigation -- to clear his name! -- but the Kopechnes absolutely refused to consent to an autopsy of their daughter. What more could he do? The Kopechnes' lawyer, Joseph Flanagan, refused to say who was paying him to fight the autopsy.
Similarly, Edwards aggressively offered to take a paternity test, knowing that the New Age hippie chick who still thinks she's going to marry him would not hurt him by allowing a paternity test. Edwards certainly is adept at reading stupid women, or as his campaign called them, "the base."
Democrats are always claiming to have the Kennedy magic, but, once again, another Kennedy-wannabe falls short. To be a real Kennedy, John, you have to kill her.
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