US News
Former White House hopeful Edwards admits to affair (Roundup)
Aug 9, 2008, 4:46 GMT
Washington - Former presidential candidate John Edwards admitted Friday that he had an extramarital affair during the initial stages of his campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination.
Edwards, a former US senator who was the vice presidential running mate of 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, admitted to an affair with Rielle Hunter, a 44-year-old filmmaker who produced online documentaries for Edwards' campaign.
'In 2006, I made a serious error in judgement,' Edwards said in a statement to US news media. 'I was and am ashamed of my conduct and actions.'
US broadcaster ABC, which first broke the story, released a full interview with Edwards Friday night. When asked by the interviewer about the end of his political career, Edwards replied, 'I don't think anything has ended.'
He said that God and his wife had forgiven him, and that he intended to 'move on.'
Edwards' wife Elizabeth was diagnosed in 2004 with breast cancer, which resurfaced in March 2007 as an incurable bone tumour. The couple has two school-age children and an older daughter.
Edwards told ABC that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began an affair with Hunter, which reportedly went on for about two months in late 2006, before he formally announced his candidacy for president.
Edwards said that he told his wife soon after the affair in 2006 but admitted fighting to have kept it out of the public eye.
He had categorically denied media reports of the affair during his campaign for the White House, and the details of the relationship were still unclear. Edwards confirmed to ABC that he had visited Hunter at a Los Angeles hotel as late as last month.
Hunter gave birth in February. Edwards denied that he was the father of her child and said the he was planning to take a paternity test to prove it.
A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has claimed to have fathered the child.
Elizabeth Edwards posted a statement Friday on the internet, blaming her husband's affair on 'human weakness' and the public disclosure of the matter on 'sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences.' She said that the last two years had not been easy, 'but we has stood with one another.'
'Although John believes he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him,' she said.
'This was our private matter, and I frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. ... Admitting one's mistakes is a hard thing for anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty in the face of shame.'
She appealed for privacy for her family.
John Edwards ended his campaign for the Democratic nomination in February.
His one-time rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, as first lady endured the publicized affair with an intern by her husband, president Bill Clinton. At an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, she said: 'My thoughts and prayers are with the Edwards family, and that's all I have to say.'
Republican presidential candidate John McCain refused to comment. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama called it a 'personal matter' for the Edwards family.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Finally, we found a democrat who isn't opposed to drilling.
That's domestic drilling, too!
...this is the kind of guy the dems trotted out for President, and lauded him. The drive-by press, who HAD to know about this all along, gagged the story, along with all the other stuff in this guys past.
In this new age of information, we can actually get a benefit from the blogs who are willing to out this guy, defeating the liberal media propaganda arm of the dem party.
enjoy.
Mrs. Edwards has made the best comment on this matter. Both her and Mrs. Clinton are amazing women. Leaving politics aside, who is perfect, and if you are, then, you will never need to ask for forgiveness.
Then again, perfect people are not very well liked.
Smear not, for in the way you smear, so will you be smeared.
...can we move on now?
Let's just pretend he disappeared in a puff of smoke - never to be seen running for a public office again. He has joined the list of liars and deceivers.
Elibabeth Edwards and Hillary - amazing women or just plain stupid???
Edwards is dead in the water. Enough
And EssPees'dad porked a pig resulting in the f*cked up moron with the trash mouth that needs an enema. The question being, where to stick the hose. In his butt or his left ear. Yes, do move on EssPee. Move far, far away. Kabul sounds good. Tehran sounds better.
SP a trash mouth? - Sounds like he's got a twin!
Maybe his wife wants to forgive his cheating, lying, sneaking around with this lowlife, possibly having a child with her, but the public doesn't have to!
did sp4's mother have any kids that lived?
...you little juveniles need to run right upstairs out of the basement, then get your your mommy, who is about 10 years older than you are, to send your three black 'stepfathers' out of her bedroom, get her to come down and write a response for you, the moment she learns to write in english.
And, by all means, get back to us!
for giving us a good example of someone that speaks english???? I think???
'...you little juveniles need to run right upstairs out of the basement, then get your your mommy, who is about 10 years older than you are, to send your three black 'stepfathers' out of her bedroom, get her to come down and write a response for you, the moment she learns to write in english.'
It would benice if you could learn how to 'write in english'. What a friggin idiot!
And all along I thought this article was about Edwards - how stupid of me!
Is it just me, or does Edwards look creepier each time he does an interview?
...what I always thought he was:
Empty Shirted, totally handled, made-up, disingenuous, walking talking political libnazi calculation. If you look close, you can see the strings tied to his arms, legs and head. (both of them)
He actually reminds me, a little, of Barak.
Cute - but not what I meant. His good looks have slowly evaporated into a sneaky-looking cheater.
From all reports that Elizabeth knew about the affair two years ago, and still joined her husband in continuing to campaign for presidential candidate doesn't bode well for her ethics and the Democrat Party. She needs to be held accountable as well!
...do you think that she might have felt a little trapped....?
Perhaps - but it wasn't going to go away - duh! She had plenty of time to decide not to go along with him. It would have been so much worse if he had won the election, then it would have come out to bite his butt bigtime. She should have left him anyway!
..the poor woman was SICK...get it?...perhaps she thought she really needed him...you know.....?
Perhaps he really had a moment of clarity when she got sick....like he really felt terrible and wanted to reconcile....this happens to men and women when they have something like this happen...they change....
This woman was already fighting cancer when he decided he wanted his fun time - she needed this like another hole in her head. Oh, that's right, he said he 'did it' while her cancer was in remission, so that really excuses him!! Sounds like he really changed ok, he's still sneaking around for his little extracurricular activity!
It's been pointed out that she probably stayed with him because she didn't want to leave her little children in a divorce situation since her life expectancy isn't great. What a terrible burden this man has put on his loyal wife just for his selfish pleasure! All the trauma Elizabeth has been through with everything that is associated with this 'mistake' will probably cause her ability to fight this cancer to falter. NOTHING he could ever do could make up for this.
No one thinks this guy is more plastic than me, but guys do wierd stuff when their lives are coming apart, and when your wife is dying, you really do lose your objectivity. His covering in the press is pretty normal, and I expect him to do that. he did f--k up, strictly speaking, but I do actually feel for him and his wife. I hate to see couples go through this.
HE'S the one who f**ked up all the way around - don't make excuses. His wife needed the sympathy for suffering her cancer, not his 'poor me' attitude! It basically showed how weak he was.
Maybe it will come out that he IS the father of his girlfriend's baby, and that she WAS paid hush money, but the bottom line is that he will have to live with this ultimate betrayal to a loyal wife, who, do doubt, will not survive for very many more years. He has disappointed so many, including his children, and his conscience (if he actually has one, and somehow that's questionable) should cause him life-long misery.
...he's a dick, no one disputes that, not even the worst libnazi apologist, but I hold no ill will towards the man's wife, no matter how she's acted.
but she should have been smart enough to know this was going to get out and in a big way, especially if he won the nomination. It probably would have gone much better when it was first discovered, and he could have withdrawn rather than deceive so many people who will never forgive or forget. She has probably spent the last couple of years struggling to go along with his lie to the public, and it couldn't have helped her condition.
when he will stop the lying about his new baby and the hush money???
...and Edwards:
They do not think the rules apply to them. They have spent their lives in public service, never having done a real job, with a softball libnazi drive-by press who gags stuff like this for them at every turn, while flaying a Conservative Senator for touching someone's foot in a bathroom.
In my home state, the former libnazi standard bearer Governor, Neil Goldschmidt, diddled a 14 year-old girl, who's mom worked on his staff, so he knew where she was in the daytime, has numerous folks who knew it, and the major daily in the state gagged it for 25 years!
I mean, he had a DRIVER, who took him over there repeatedly, and HE became Sheriff! Then the driver began 'driving' Goldschmidts wife, because he had someone else he was servicing, ostensibly with lolli-pop in hand, and so he stepped up and drove Miss Daisy!
Now, with the blogs, it is almost impossible to avoid this, but these guys are so inured to this they keep going on like no one will find out. It really speaks to a person who would be President as to how they delude themselves on the simplest of concepts, but their followers insist on how they have such a terrific bead on reality.
It's not only the top dogs who are at fault, but the lemmings who bow down and kiss the ground they walk on, be it Repubs or Dems, conservative or not. It's their disgusting lack of judgement that makes them a danger to the public.
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SP4: Edwards is the The Difference BetweenAug 9th, 2008 - 16:13:06
...ambition and blind ambition.
The revelation???
He was EXACTLY what I thought he was.
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