ABC News is reporting - - -
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.
Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.
Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.
A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has said he was the father of the child.
According to friends of Hunter, Edwards met her at a New York city bar in 2006. His political action committee later paid her $114,000 to produce campaign website documentaries despite her lack of experience.
Edwards said the affair began during the campaign after she was hired. Hunter traveled with Edwards around the country and to Africa.
Edwards said his wife, Elizabeth, and others in his family became aware of the affair in 2006.
Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife's cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.
When the National Enquirer first reported the alleged Edwards-Hunter affair last October 11, Edwards, his campaign staff and Hunter vociferously denounced the report.
"The story is false, it's completely untrue, it's ridiculous," Edwards told reporters then.
He repeated his denials just two weeks ago.
Edwards today admitted the National Enquirer was correct when it reported he had visited Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month. ….
The rest of the story’s here.
Comments:
Edwards will be a guest tonight on “Nightline” at 11:35 ET. The network says it will broadcast the Edwards interview in its entirety.
What’s happened is a searing ordeal for the Edwards family. I’m sorry for its innocent members.
The affair and Edwards’ lies create problems for the Dems, not least the questions it raises about Sen. Obama’s vaunted judgment.
The Obama camp has done nothing to distance itself from frequent reports Edwards was on Obama’s short V-P candidate list; or at least a sure shot for an important post in President presumptive Obama’s administration.
Did Edwards fool Obama or did Obama know about Edwards’ affair?
And if he knew about it, did Obama hope as Edwards has for many months that the Dem-dominated MSM would cover it up?
Edwards has also made it much harder for the Dems to campaign this fall attacking the GOP for sleaze.
The Edwards family’s ordeal and the Dems problems caused by Edwards’ odious behavior are important.
But IMO the most important and troubling aspect of the affair is what its revealed about the bias of so many of our news organizations that led them to do all they could to avoid reporting the story or grossly downplaying it and trivializing its importance.
If you don’t think political bias was at play in MSM’s treatment of liberal/leftist Edwards, just recall what happened when Anita Hill, with no supporting evidence or witness – simply her accusation – charged Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment.
Or recall what happened when a woman in Durham told a series of wildly improbable stories about being beaten, strangled, and raped orally, vaginally and anally over the course of 30 minutes by three while members of the Duke lacrosse team in a tiny bathroom people who’ve seen it say they have trouble understanding how four people could ever squeeze into it in the first place, and if they somehow did, how they'd have room enough to lift their arms.
And speaking of the Duke hoax and the frame-up attempt it spawned, none of you have ever seen a picture of that tiny bathroom, have you?
You haven’t seen a photo of three reporters squeezed into the bathroom, with the photo taken by a press photographer who was also in there with them, have you?
Yet as the Edwards-Hunter affair story played out these two-plus weeks, MSM orgs keep saying, “Gee, we don’t have pictures. We wouldn’t touch the Edwards story until we do.”
Polls typically show only about 20 or 25 percent of Americans say they have "some" or "a great deal" of trust in MSM news orgs.
It's no wonder.
Hat tip: Ed in NY
Friday, August 08, 2008
Edwards admits to sexual affair; denies paternity
Posted by JWM at 4:11 PM
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7 comments:
I can't understand why an admission is newsworthy when it's responding to a claim that, itself, was not newsworthy?
George McGovern was interviewed by Neil Cavuto today and was asked about his reaction to the Edwards admission. In true leftwing nut fashion, McGovern said what happened was a personal matter and does not reflect on Edwards' integrity or character.
I am reminded of the reaction when Slick Willie was caught being fellated in the Oval Office and of the Democrats only Joe Liebermann had enough class to call Clinton a scoundrel. How can anyone overlook a man cheating on his terminally ill wife? A man who cannot be honest and loyal to a dying spouse cannot be trusted in a position of trust and responsibility PERIOD. As a nation, we have slid into a moral dungheap in which scumbags like Edwards and Clinton are permitted to hold public office despite being completely unfit morally or ethically.
Tarheel Hawkeye
Amen Hawkeye!!
As John has pointed out over and over, the threat and posibility of blackmail was very real. Same thing with Bill Clinton. The ONLY piece of physical evidence was Monica's dress, which was hanging in her closet. No dress, no case. Imagine for a moment if the Chinese had discovered this and had broken into Monica's apartment and stolen that dress. With a man absolutely consumed with his legacy, what do you think he would have given up to make that dress disappear?? Truly frightening thought. Hawkeye, George McGovern completely misses the point. You, however, are spot on! Steve in New Mexico
Tarheel Hawkeye and Steve in New Mexico:
You are both right - the only thing that I would add is that it doesn't really matter whether Elizabeth Edwards has terminal cancer or not....any spouse who "cannot be honest and loyal" to his or her spouse "cannot be trusted in a position of trust or responsibility PERIOD". Call me an old fashioned girl but if one can't be faithful to the person with whom one is sharing a bed, how can one be faithfu in the promises one makes to the electorate? The simple answer is one can't.
My guess is that Edward's admission today is just the first in several - the culmination will be that indeed Frances Quinn is his child.
cks
Yes John, there are two Amerikas.
As far as I'm concerned the final outgrowth of this entire story (non-story) is that the MSM is not only biased and therefore incompetent, it is irrelevant, obsolete, on its way by its own actions to becoming extinct.
Without credibility, the MSM really is nothing. And each of these instances cost them their credibility with an ever growning number of people.
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