John Edwards admits to affair
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards has admitted to an extramarital affair that is certain to end his political career.
Edwards ran for the highest office in the land this past primary season and now finds himself dogging questions about his conduct during what will prove to be his last campaign.
His timing is worth noting. Tabloids were running stories detailing the affair as early as February, but the mainstream media never grabbed hold of the story. The former Senator from North Carolina admitted on ABC News show Nightline on Friday August 8 and said “I am responsible for it. I alone am responsible for it.”
With the 2008 Olympic Games beginning in Beijing, Edwards admission of the affair is likely to get lost on the massive world media coverage of the athletic contests conducted in China.
The woman in the middle of this story, Rielle Hunter, had been brought into the Edwards presidential campaign inner-circle because of the fact she was creating a documentary on the Edwards campaign.
Most notable of his interview quotes detailing the affair was Edwards’ assertion that the entire cheating fiasco was the result of “an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want.”
Edwards’ entire statement:
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 percent 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.
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