Edwards: "If You Want To Beat Me Up -- Feel Free"
Here's a self-flagellating statement from John Edwards himself on his affair:
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. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. 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. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby.
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.
I have given a complete interview on this matter and having done so, will have nothing more to say.
Comments (202)
My heart goes out to Elizabeth and the Edwards family.
August 8, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think anything else really adds anything meaningful to this situation. It's bad enough that his family had to go through this privately in 2006 when he came clean to them privately. Now they have to deal with it again, this time publicly. My heart goes out to them. My feelings on him, his actions, and his apology are and will always be secondary to that.
August 8, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't believe he told his family in 2006. That's a lie. I know someone who worked on the Edwards' campaign and when the story first hit the tabloids, Elizabeth was quizzing all the staff to see if there was anything to it. She had no idea. Edwards is lying.
August 8, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Attn. FREERIDER of the tellingly opaque icon...
Please wade through your 13+ postings on this human tragedy and look for my comments on your character. It can be found at about 11:15 or so on Friday night. I say here, what I say there: Get a new hobby, and shame on you.
August 8, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for telling me about my character. Your opinion really means a lot to me. YAWN . . .
August 8, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're welcome. Enjoy oncology.
August 9, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a sad situation.
And whether he's lying now is of no interest to me.
He's not the candidate, he dropped out quite some time ago, and our current candidate is quite obviously a different kind of candidate.
Edwards decision to run reflects poorly on his judgment and understanding of the current political and media environments.
August 8, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Edwards's decision to have an affair wasn't too bright either, apparently.
August 9, 2008 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
This statement is a lie and it will only give reporters incentive to prove it. If the affair ended in 2006 and he was almost burned about it in the tabloids, WHY would he risking seeing the woman and her baby in a hotel room??
Because it's his baby!
August 8, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Mr. Holmes, there is another explanation. Say he wanted to see the woman, maybe to talk to her about the fact that the stuff was about to hit the fan? Would she not have her child with her, maybe just...because it's her child and she couldn't get a babysitter? Or wanted to show the baby off to him? Or a few dozen other reasons?
August 8, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem of course, is that this didn't hit the fan until he was spotted at the hotel. The question is who dimed him out. My money is on the spurned lover.
August 8, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
They say that the driver who brought her and him to the hotel dropped the dime on him.
August 8, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listen, she came to LA from Santa Barbara (two hours away) with the baby. She and a friend got two hotel rooms in the friend's name. Edwards snuck over there in the middle of the night and stayed for five hours.
You don't do all of that just to tell someone that the story is about to break. OK. There's telephones, you know.
Also, there would be no story to break had he not visited her in that hotel room. This story had died back in December, 2007 when he denied it and when his friend/aid claimed he was the father. Edwards was in the clear . . . until he ended up at the Beverly Hilton!
August 8, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why? As I posted at Booman, if Edwards told his wife in '06 and they both still sat there in New Orleans in Dec. '06 when he announced he was running again, then they were both willing to endanger Dem. chances with their egomania.
It's not a secret that I am not a fan of Edwards and that I absolutely detest Elizabeth Edwards. But if she did know about this in '06, then it just proves the point I've been making for the past 4 years: that she's nothing but a social-climbing power grabber.
August 8, 2008 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude - taking that hurt tone and position ain't helping.
I feel sorry for his wife and his children. But that's not why I am mad - it's not that he betrayed Elizabeth.
He betrayed the Democrats - in big huge gobs when he filed to run for president.
August 8, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. If he ruins the democrats chance for the White House, I will literally be livid.
August 8, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not going to ruin the Democrats chances this year.
August 8, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think so either - don't get me wrong.
But dammit, after Bill Clinton, (need I remind anyone that Bill is still the subject of jokes and scorn at times?) this is really something every goddamn Democrat in office needs to take a refresher course in.
August 8, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
he betrayed democrats even tho the affair began AND ended before the campaign started, when he was still a private citizen?
geesh...tough crowd.
August 8, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
He betrayed Democrats by running in '08 *knowing* that this was going to come out at some point...
What would his plan have been in the event he actually *won*?
August 8, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's lying. The affair didn't end before the election began. That's his baby. I'm willing to bet my mortgage on that!
August 8, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the affair ended, why was he sneaking into (and out of) the hotel where this woman was?
I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but Edwards seemed so fake to me (Ambulance chaser material).
I made the comment during the primaries when Elizabeth was introducing her husband (he was right behind her). He wasn't even listening and when she was finished, he didn't smile or even look at her (he was too busy smiling and waving to everyone else. She looked at him lovingly and he didn't even hug her or anything, just stepped up and took the podium.
The guy was sleaze from day one, which was why he waited out to see which one (hillary or obama) was going to offer him the most for his endorsement.
Just like republicans we all know and love, Mr. Edwards felt he was above it all. That he could do whatever he wanted and say something completely different on the trail. Reminds me of the "family values" meme of the republicans.
August 8, 2008 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you now any elected officials? Believing they can say anddo whatever they want is far and away the most common problem for them. It is by no means something that happens only to the Republicans. It is precisely this problem that leads to most of the problems politicians have in office whether they are personal problems or problems that have to do with the jobs they have been elected to do. This sense of invulnerability and/or being able to do and say as they please is pervasive and clouds the judgement of all kinds of otherwise very good, admirable people from the highest to the lowest elected officials.
August 8, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, that should be "Do you know any elected officials?"
August 8, 2008 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
O come on.
We lost our majority over a damn affair- remember?
August 8, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've got your chronology mixed up. We lost the majority in 2004. After they tried to impeach Clinton over Lewinsky, we actually *gained* seats in Congress.
August 8, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
But we never regained the majority. And we gave the Republicans an issue to run on in 2000 -- in part costing our nominee the Presidency.
August 8, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you.
August 8, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wrong. Gore lost because he wanted to distance himself from Clinton instead of running 8 years of peace and prosperity.
Clinton left office with a 60+% approval rating. If he could have run for a third term, he would have won.
August 8, 2008 6:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your assumption is that a 60% approval would have been maintained through another political campaign and I highly doubt that. Clinton fatigue was real.
August 8, 2008 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a fact. Don't be lazy, look it up.
August 9, 2008 1:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're forgetting that Gore, in fact, WON the election. it was the supreme court case that he lost.
August 9, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lost the majority in Congress, in both houses, with the 1994 fall elections in the 104th Congress which was seated January 3, 1995. This was EXTREMELY upsetting to the Democratic Party since the majority had been held by Democrats since the 1950s.
Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996 with the new GOP majority in both houses in Congress--a very trying time I'm sure for Bill. The scandal broke and consumed most of 1997, 1998, and 1999.
August 8, 2008 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republicans were working on securing a majority long before Monica filled out a job application.
August 9, 2008 1:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it did begin and end before he announced for office, and if he'd told the truth when confronted during the campaign, I might agree with you.
But .....ABC: "Edwards today admitted the National Enquirer was correct when it reported he had visited Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month. --- The former Senator said his wife had not known about the meeting."
So it's not merely misconduct that "took place for a short period in 2006." There was some more misconduct last month and, frankly, we don't know about his actions in between...
August 8, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
ok...but the "misconduct" in 2006 and the "misconduct" last week occured both before and AFTER he was a presidential candidate. in other words, when he was a private citizen.
he wasn't "misconducting" himself while he was running for office.
August 8, 2008 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you really that gullible? You think he screwed around with the woman for months, stopped when he was running for president, then started up again when he dropped out?
Puhleeze! His affair has been ongoing and that is his baby. Period. Full stop.
August 8, 2008 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
would you stop already with the BASELESS smears???
FYI: everything you pull out of your ass is only shit. holding it up for everyone as if you were showing us facts only makes you look like a fool.
August 8, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baseless? There is a whole lot of basis to believe that. You have to be mighty gullible to buy all the mental gymnastics necessary to believe that the baby is really the baby of Edward's aide.
August 8, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
on what basis then?
all you've got are sneaking suspicions and logical fallacies.
BASELESS.
August 8, 2008 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Baseless? Sure. He stopped the affair in 2006. The woman has an affair and a baby with a campaign worker. Yet, Edwards admits to sneaking into a hotel to see her and the baby three weeks ago (without telling his wife). Why?
What's he doing seeing this woman, after having gotten away with the affair?
You may want to stick your head in the sand but Edwards is an admitted liar who never quit screwing around with that trashy woman.
August 8, 2008 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
first of all, calling her trashy makes you a disgusting pig.
second of all, you've proven nothing other than that you are suspicious. good work.
BASELESS.
August 8, 2008 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have to "prove" anything. But there are logical conclusions and you're twisting yourself into a pretzel to make Edwards' version of the story make sense. It doesn't.
QUESTION: Why did Edwards sneak into a hotel in the middle of the night, spend five hours in the room with the woman (who was registered under another name) and her baby?
Have you seen her? She is trashy. NEWSFLASH: Blonde and white and not the same thing when it comes to hair color.
August 8, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
you obviously can't tell your logical conclusions from your logical fallacies.
do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor and familiarize yourself with the many fallacies you are guilty of:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/
August 8, 2008 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Answer my question: why did he risk everything to sneak into a hotel in the middle of the night to see a woman (and her baby) he broke up with two years ago and not tell his wife?
August 8, 2008 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
logical fallacy, "burden of proof":
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/burden-of-proof.html
again, if you pull something out of your ass, it isn't up to me to prove that it's shit. and asking me to pull something out of my own ass so that we might compare handfuls won't change that.
August 8, 2008 9:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've proved my point. Your head is in the sand. I'm done talking to you, moron!
August 8, 2008 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Hillary did more damage to the dems chances than John Edwards--way more.
August 8, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I second that. While Edwards could've damaged, Hill already did. And it ain't over yet. But lets pretend there ain't no more trouble.
August 8, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bingo. I gave $$. I'm pissed at Edwards. I had this crazy idea that after the affairs of the CLENIS, that people would have a little more sense.
Christ, he's only been campaigning for president since 2005. Is it too much to ask that, in that moment of temptation, he would have thought of the implications.
That said, he's not the nominee. So it should matter not one little bit for the election. (he dreams)
August 8, 2008 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's actually been campaigning for president since 2000. He took a brief hiatus in 2004 to campaign for vice president.
August 9, 2008 1:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Damn straight. Imagine if he was the nominee! It would be a disaster!
August 8, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
If he didn't run for President this year I don't think anybody would care. He put the party and the country at risk.
Also why was he at the hotel visiting his former lover if the baby isn't his? Something still doesn't add up there.
August 8, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
yes. john edwards put the country at risk by having slept with someone who wasnt his wife.
that ranks right up there alongside GW ignorign the "bin laden determined to attack in us" memo.
some of you need to get a grip on reality and get a little perspective.
August 8, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Umm...he ran for President right? What if he was the Dem nominee right now?
If he was the Dem nominee right now, McCain would be a lock to win. That, my friend, is putting the country at risk.
August 8, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
that is nonsense. the relative infidelities of mccain v edwards would end up hurting mccain with his base way more than it would hurt edwards with his.
August 8, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a New Yorker who feels completely let down and betrayed by the guy who was supposed to fight for my interests in Albany...I can't agree with you in the least.
Public officials don't have a private life. If Edwards had been the presumptive nominee, this would have been an unmitigated political disaster in which the Democrats yet again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Their private conduct has public implications, specifically for their party and their supporters. I mean, DUH.
August 8, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm not sure if you responded to my post by accident or not...
i did not claim that this would not hurt edwards if he were the nominee.
my point is that if edwards were the nominee when this came out, then mccain's own infidelities would also become an issue. and that would end up hurting mccain more with his own base (with whom he is presumably already on shaky ground).
August 8, 2008 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
With the fucking media giving every possible pass the right wing thug ? You must be joking.
If Eddie were the candidate, he would have been sauted and served to the old guy by the fucking, media.
August 8, 2008 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCains infidelities are old news. Forgotten. This is fresh meat. He could have brought many of our hopes down to our ankles.
August 9, 2008 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Conceivable that he met with her to tell her "this is going to come out", and explain how and why...
August 8, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
thats what i think.
but i dont know.
I absolutely DO NOT think he went there to have sex one lasttime, for old time's sake like some here believe.
August 8, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously?
August 9, 2008 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly, Jonze! There's no way Edwards would have been within 100 miles of that woman if he had ended the affair in 2006--especially if she got pregnant by his close friend and aid. It's all an elaborate lie, and not a very believable one at that!
August 8, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's exactly why I'm mad.
They know the risk they are running - they know what will happen if they get caught.
The lack of judgment is stunning.
August 8, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you on this one Tena. Republicans filled campaign cauffers with the fund raising they did on Bill Clinton, in the South. Anyone wanna take bets that we will see this issue in a fund rasing letter within the next 14 days?
August 8, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
they're going to raise money off of the affair of a private citizen? i doubt that...
edwards isn't a candidate for office. edwards currently holds no office.
so just how in the world are they going to make this an issue?
and if they do, they should be beaten about the head and shoulders until they bleed because thats exploitating a private family's troubles and thats just disgusting.
August 8, 2008 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah yes, I agree with you, it is disgusting. But you have to remember it is the republicans who will try to fundraise off of this. We dems only had to point out the hypocrisy of the "family values" republicans and their many discretions. As a matter of fact Karl Rove himself said that personal scandals bring a whole party down.
This was supposed to be a Dem year because of all of the repub scandals of various forms. The only thing they have to go on is "See, the dems are no better than we are."
It does not do us dems any favors at all with a nominee that is not well known to the joe schmoes of the country. "If John Edwards turned out to be sleazy," they think, "what about that new guy Obama? Forget it. All politicians are corrupt."
Yes...thanks John. Man between him and Hillary this season....
I tell you, I can't believe that just a few months ago I thought that decent republicans would vote democratic this year. Now they'll choose John McCain if only because that is the sleaze they know...vs the relatively unknown Obama. If they judge him by Edwards, Hillary or Bill's version of a democrat...we're sunk. It will be interesting what this does to poll numbers.
August 8, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Never miss an opportunity to blame Hillary.
August 9, 2008 2:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
What? Like she hasn't given the republicans fodder for ads against Obama? (the threshold endorsement of McCain comes to mind) nice way for a "democrat" to act. Sorry, but if the foo shits....
August 9, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Luckily he isn't Senator Edwards. Or Rep. Edwards. Or nominee Edwards. He's just run-of-the-mill ex-candidate Edwards. But he is a Democrat, and I agree that they'll try and twist that somehow. Hell, there's no twisting needed, it's plastered all over the news!
August 9, 2008 2:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Eliot Spitzer redux.
August 8, 2008 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
"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. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen," - John Edwards, on Bill Clinton, 1999.
August 8, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow....now that is some chutzpah
August 9, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course Bill's response could have been "Hey John, don't knock it till you try it."
August 9, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
He messed up.
But I still think he's a good man.
That said, it's too bad we live in tabloid world.
CNN is calling it the John Edwards Sex Scandal.
It was an affair. Something he should be--and is--ashamed of. Scandal? They are acting as bad as the Enquirer. Let's leave them alone now so they can continue to work it out.
August 8, 2008 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still that niggling problem of him not telling his wife he went to visit his former mistress and her baby that's not his. If he's willing to take a paternity test, he was either being blackmailed or getting some while a baby was in the room.
August 8, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or maybe both.
August 9, 2008 2:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Unanswered question. If the affair took place and ended in 2006, and/or it's not his baby, then why did he pay a secret, undisclosed-to-his-wife trip to meet the woman with whom he had an affair at the Beverly Hills hotel and stayed until the middle of the night?
Oh, and is that grainy photo in the Enquirer him playing with the baby? Why?
If he doesn't answer these questions, it appears that the lies are continuing.
August 8, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh. Well, don't know about you guys but I'm impressed. As far as public admissions of guilt from politicians goes, this one has the most class of any I've seen in a while.
August 8, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whining about it?
That's class?
'
wow, you have no concept or taste, do you?
August 8, 2008 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
who the fuck cares?
August 8, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
double the fuck who cares..
August 8, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, it's done. How this affects the world I have no idea. A politician having an affair--I bet that's never happened before!
He is not running for president now. He is no longer an elected official. If there's anything else going on, it's between him and Elizabeth.
We can get caught up in this and act like the National Enquirer or town gossips or we can focus on things that really matter. It's your choice.
August 8, 2008 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
sanctimonious busybodies, that's who!
August 8, 2008 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, no one forced Edwards to confess!
August 9, 2008 2:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Poor Elizabeth. What a scumbag Edwards is!
Notice how many 'I's & me's' in his statement. Totally political and insincere.
August 8, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
so he should have said "we're ashamed" "we've made a serious error in judgement"??? He's taking responsibility for his actions. I think the I's and Me's is not only appropriate but called for.
August 8, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have nothing more to say??? Damn right, motherfucker! 'Cause your career is over.
Go back to your dad's friggin' coalmine, or whatever the hell it was.
August 8, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Utterly believable, heart-rending, and human statement.
This especially seemed to go the extra mile: "In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."
side note: I only wish politicians would admit to having feelings for the people with whom they had affairs. It's tacky and heartless for them simply to deny they are in love with the person -- it makes their actions seem even sleazier.
August 8, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
exactly. but they have to play along with the big lie that monogamy is the one and only true path. and that 'cheating' is only ever about dirty sexual desires.
americans love to take pleasure in judging other people about sex because judging other people's sex lives is the only time it is acceptable to take pleasure in sex outside of your own marriage.
August 8, 2008 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or we could be judging all the lying he did. Or the money he gave her the videos. Or his actions that could have put us at risk of another Republican president.
August 8, 2008 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
you can fool yourselves but you can't fool me.
August 8, 2008 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I never thought I would have to come clean.
August 8, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's about time, I never believed you in the first place John Boy. I said that you were having an affair when the Enquirer revealed it initially.
The bastard is YOUR child, John Scumbag Edwards.
Obama/Edwards 2008! TWO LOSERS!
August 8, 2008 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whatever he says will not help repair his own image or political career- and playing a victim doesn't help at all. Especially, when he admits he was with the woman just two week back in a Hotel makes his confession seem phony.
Again, atleast for me and I'm sure for many here is New York, having a affair frankly isn't it a big deal. It's his private business who he is screwing but he had chutzpah to jeopardize the democratic party's chances to reclaim the White House. That's not excusable. I'm thankful he lost.
August 8, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
See, if I was running Obama's campaign I'd challenge John McCain to issue a similar statement regarding his own many adulteries and his well-documented abandonment of his own ailing wife for the current drugged-out millionairess.
But then again, unlike most here, I support a candidate who pledged to pack a gun for the knife fight.
August 8, 2008 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with benjoya hussein__ who cares? I hope McLame starts throwing rocks from one of his many glass houses!