From ABC News:
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
From CNN:
Edwards, 55, of North Carolina, told ABC that his wife, Elizabeth, and other family members have known about the affair since 2006.
From the NYT blog:
The network [ABC] said that Mr. Edwards “made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife’s cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter.”
This is just so sad, on so many levels.
UPDATE: Here is the statement John Edwards released today
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.
UPDATE 2: Elizabeth Edwards’ statement posted on Daily Kos:
Our family has been through a lot. Some caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently – caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But we have stood with one another through them all. 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.
John made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007. 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. Because of a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter could no longer be wholly private.
The pain of the long journey since 2006 was about to be renewed.
John has spoken in a long on-camera interview I hope you watch. 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. The toll on our family of news helicopters over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue. I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I agree Vivian “This is just so sad, on so many levels.” but compared to the other news I read on your site “… Del. Jeion Ward, who lost her son last evening.” it does not even come close.
You’re right, of course. But you know what gets me? The fact that the MSM ignored this story.
I’m getting to the point that I don’t know that we can trust the MSM to bring us the unvarnished truth.
In my lifetime I’ve never know the MSM to provide “unvarnished truth” … they’ve always taken a particular perspective … usually on the side that spend the most ad revenue $$$ with them
“Politican is Lying Scumbag”
Why should the MSM report THAT? It’s not news.
Yeah, but this year seems like it’s just gotten worse. Or maybe, because I get my news from multiple sources, I’m more aware of how far off the MSM is from the truth. Had the Enquirer not stayed on top of this story (albeit with fake photos), they would have ignored it.
I don’t see that it is anyone’s business who Mr. Edwards chooses to have sex with. He’s an adult and he is free to do what he pleases. Americans are such hypocrites when it comes to sex. Generally, those who are always talking about the sexual adventures of others are the people who aren’t having any of their own. Pity.
FWIW, as repugnant as we find the Enquirer, they’re a different sort from most tabloids. If they level an allegation, they’ve almost always got solid stuff backing it up. That doesn’t mean that they’re *right*, but it’s not the Weekly World News. When I saw this a few weeks ago, I had a feeling it was going to turn out to be true.
I was a fan of Edwards. My general reaction is somewhat along the lines of Tyler’s, but given that he was (even at the outside) a potential VP/Cabinet pick, it’s (borderline) news. Disappoints, to be sure.
Anyway, I hope we can all save the sanctimony. It’s not an excuse, but Edwards didn’t make a career out of talking about the sanctity of marriage or the usual family values BS.
VJP-
I’ve stated this sentiment on other blogs, but why did you say that they ignored it? They asked him about it, and he denied. What would you have expected, Anderson Cooper to come on to 360 and report “The National Enquirer says that…”? There was nothing illegal here, no prostitution or soliciting gay sex in a bathroom. Secret personal affairs and “love childs” are the exclusive domain of the tabloids, or so I thought.
I can’t find an updated list but this one shows that adultery is illegal in a number of states, including NC.
But my issue is that the MSM reports rumors regularly. And this story has been around for a while and the MSM didn’t say much, if anything. Looking at their record over the past year, this isn’t the only story they ignored.
With all we went through with the Clintons, right or wrong, I can’t believe that John and Elizabeth Edwards would have placed themselves and their young children, not to mention the Democratic party and the country, in this position. It would have been so simple to withdraw from the race or, better yet, not to run in the first place.
If John Edwards had been the nominee, the MSM would have blasted this story in late October. They weren’t ignoring it, they were just waiting for the right time. And health care and other important issues would have been shoved to the side again, just because some guy can’t adhere to simple standards of morality.
Now tell me again, please, what was Bill Clinton sulking about last week? I care, Bill, I really care. Because YOU are more important than our country or party or fellow citizens. It’s all about YOU, YOU, YOU. And Hillary, of course, that poor, pitiful victim of Barack Obama’s sexism. And John Edwards, a handsome man whose only real vice is expensive haircuts (because cheating on your wife when she has cancer is your personal business and doesn’t really count). And Elizabeth Edwards, too, who probably only got cancer because of Barack Obama’s sexism.
Please, Barack, do not let us down in this way. Please.
A different angle on this story — knowing the affair had occurred and would be a disaster when it was uncovered, Edwards (and sadly Elizabeth) decided on a Presidentail run, without telling those who chose to support him of the risk (for defeat) that this matter might have! Instead he proceeded and sadly spent money, that supporters had given him in good faith, on his mistress….
From the AP story printed in the The Post Telegram, Long Beach CA, 8/8/08 (http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_10139855):
“In 2006, Edwards’ political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Web videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.
Hunter’s daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father’s name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.
The payments from Edwards’ One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.
Midline provided “Website/Internet services,” according to reports that Edwards’ PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Midline’s work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, Pa., prepares for an appearance on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and travels in Uganda in 2006.
Edwards’ PAC paid Midline $100,000 in a four-month span in 2006, and followed that up with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.”
Not only did Edwards betray his family, he then went on to betray the trusting people who worked and gave money to him and his campaign, treating them, IMO, as inutile fools.
His behavior is disgusting, unbelievably selfish, and an apology at this point is hollow and worthless.
Right. What sleepless said.
What a disappointment!!! I was duped by that sleezy scumbag cheesy grinning lawyer AND his wife. It was bad enough what he did to his wife, but for her to assist in covering up for him just so he could run for president is even worse. Both need to dig a hole, jump in it and bury themselves. And someone please explain that fuzzy math. How is it that when you take people’s money, lie to them, jeopardize the party, that it is only 1% of a lie? Just how low would he stoop to become president? Good bye John & Elizabeth Edwards. You both stink.
BS
Very good points, sleepless.
I watched the interview last night. My first impression was that Edwards “manned up” and took responsibility, something that is rare. And he did it by himself, without Elizabeth at his side, unlike everyone else who has been caught.
But then I started thinking like sleepless – why in the heck did Edwards, knowing what he had done, pursued the presidential nomination?
The truth was in the interview: he did it because he thought he could get away with it. And that is truly sad and says an awful lot about a man who would be president.
ChenZen – a couple of other things I need to point out about the press ignoring the story. (And despite all the protestations I heard on CNN and other stations last night, they did ignore it.) First, here’s a Slate story that I linked to in my earlier post about this.
And then there was the LA Times gag on their bloggers discussing the issue.