ABC News: John Edwards admits affair, denies paternity

ABC News is reporting that John Edwards confirmed that he indeed had an affair with videographer Rielle Hunter, but denied that he is the father of her baby -- the subject of recent allegations in the National Enquirer that have launched a broad debate over the media's responsibility in pursuing such stories.

In an interview with Bob Woodruff to air this evening, Edwards admits to having an affair with Hunter but says it began and ended while the cancer afflicting his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was in remission. The disease has since flared anew.

ABC said that Edwards, who has not taken a paternity test, contended he could not be the father of Hunter's baby because the affair ended before the child's conception. A former aide, Andrew Young, has said that he is the father though a birth certificate apparently lists no father for the child.

It was unclear whether Edwards had been on Barack Obama's short list of vice presidential contenders, but his admission would seem to put a spike in that, not to mention any high-profile role at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

Added to the controversy: Edwards lied about the affair when the Enquirer first raised the issue in October. As The Ticket reported then, Edwards, then actively seeking the Democratic nomination, told reporters the story was "false" and "ridiculous."

Video of the news can be seen here.

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[GEAH]

So, the LA Times is scooped and humiliated by the National Enquirer. What a sad ending this is to a once-great paper.

[HowAboutSomeRealNews]

All we get are these phony, moronic, corrupt puppets as presidential candidates. There's a good reason for why the poop floats to the top but you won't be told why by the LA Times.

[TakeFive]

So did Tony Pierce be send out a new memo? Or are you just taking a risk here?

[Michael West]

I don't believe the Edwards affair is true, you right-wingers are so gulible! This story was NOT in the LA Times. You can't trust the Enquirer, or ABC News, Drudge, John Edwards, Fox News...
Sad ending to a once great paper- well put.

[J Rogers]

Wow... the LA Times is soooo brave!! Way to print a story 3 weeks after it was released and confirmed by multiple sources. What does it tell you that I as a lay-person find out about news before the LA Times does. Since when have allegations not been fit to print on a major politician?

I'm hoping soon they'll report on Bill Clinton's affair and impeachment proceedings... or are they waiting for a confession from him as well?

[Who doesn't]

So what? Who gives a crap if Edwards had an affair? John McCain did too. He left his wife who waited for him the whole time he was a POW and shacked up with Cindy back in 1979.

[rickwla]

Wow! This happens right in front of the noses of the LA Times and you get scooped by the National Enquirer and then ABC News? The Times even instructed its bloggers to avoid this story.

This is news. And it was news even if Edwards was no longer running for president because, when he was running for president, he knew he had this affair in his closet. What gall. What would have happened if he was the nominee with this story coming out?

Memo to the Times editors: That's why this is news and its important for you to have reported on it. The Times becomes more irrelevant every day.

[Dave F.]

I'm fascinated by how quick those leaving comments are to criticize the LAT for any and every story. What happened to waiting until something is confirmed. If they had reported earlier and it proved false, the comments would have complained about the paper being irresponsible.

Fascinating sport you guys play over in these parts. I'll start up the next round:

"The LA Times is once again behind the curve with this font usage. What is this they're using? Arial??? Preposterous and facetious of them don't you think?"

[frank]

Nobody better even say that this officals are like us, cause there not and shouldnt' be like us. We need nearly perfect people to run this country. Tha't why this country is the way it is because it's being run by average curupt, gay, cheating, greedy people. That's good that the media trys so hard to show us that these people we rely on to run our country are just stupid.

[Rafe]

Oh, so he says he "didn't love her." That makes everything perfectly OK, right?

[National Enquier]

We told you so!!! Be a little braver next time and report the truth!

Signed NE

[Dave F.]

I celebrate J. Rogers keen eye as a lay person getting this scoop 3 weeks ago. I am on the lower rung of lay persons that had not heard about this until now.

I'm disappointed in the Times and the 17 or other odd news feeds / broadcasts I do try to keep up with on a daily basis for not thrusting this into my face sooner since there is nothing else in the world to report on.

[Stephen Cole]

Now we know the reason for those $400 haircuts.

[michael ball]

Clinton had affairs also,but it didn't keep him from making
our country the most together it had been in many years.
An affair,though wrong,is nothing compared to the lies
and utterly complete corruption that this administration
has heaped upon this nation.Bush has weakened this
country in so many ways,its going to take many years
to recover from the corruption,and the embarrassment
he has made america to the rest of the world.

[MacBoBo]

Oh, so he says he "didn't love her." That makes everything perfectly OK, right?

---------------------------------------------------------

It just proves that he was doing it out of "duty" as opposed to doing it out of "love".

[Gene Tomlinson]

what do you expect from a newsaper who spends all it's time criticizing Republicans and LIONIZING LIBERALS.

So what's new? Of course the LAT dude has egg on his face, that's typical media. They always think they are smarter than anybody else.

I am sure Sam Zell has watched all this and is taking notes.

Gene Tomlinson

[Tim Jemal]

“Sadly, it comes as no surprise that Senator Edwards not only had an extramarital affair but lied about it. Having an affair is not the issue which the public disdains the most. It’s hypocrisy and lack of authenticity where private actions starkly belie public pronouncements.”

[diana]

wh y the American people play with their double morality who cares if he had an affair before
give me a break

[George P. Fillywick]

Who cares? We're at war, people are dying, the economy is faltering and we're at the end of 8 years of a failed neo-conservative agenda run amuck.

The last thing I'm worried about is where politicians put their privates.

[Spanky]

I see an Maury Povich episode in the works.... "You Are The Father!!!"

[B-Daddy]

The issue isn't "who cares?" Rightly or wrongly, millions of people care. The issue isn't the Times passing on what the Enquirer reported, absent corroboration. That was prudent. The issue is the total lack of business sense and journalistic competitive spirit which led the Times to not even investigate the truth of the Enquirer's reporting in the first place. And if the Times was investigating and came up with zilch, that is even more damning.

[DP Ludwig]

Seriously - why are Americans always so hung up on the private lives of public figures?

So Edwards had an affair? Big deal.

Move along, move along - there's nothing to see here.

[Dan]

"A former aide, Andrew Young, has said that he is the father" Actually, that is almost creepier than him admitting paternity. What - were he and his campaign workers passing her around like a wine bottle in a hobo jungle?

[willie]

What's the story here? Man cheats on wife? This is news? What Inquiring minds really want to know is has Paris Hilton has pulled ahead of the old wrinkly faced white haired guy in the presidential race?

[Henry]

How could he? I'm so disappointed in him- he's such a great man. By the way, critical commenters, I don't see you working to fight poverty. So sit back and enjoy your money- you worked so hard for it, and we all know that poor people never, ever work hard. Right?

[frank]

Too bad your lib bias blinded you to this story. Now your bias is the story.

[ann romero]

who cares?

who cares if he did and who cares if he lied about it.

i certainly don't care

puritans!!!!!!

[Tim_CA]

Don't Know why you'ld be "Fascinated" Dave F.......you apparently aren't a regular reader of this tired old anemic leftist rag.

Had this been a Republican VP hopeful, this story would have been page 1 "above the fold" since October.

Don't you remember how they tried to scuttle Schwartzenagger the day before the recall election (all unsubstantiated innuendo)? That little trick preceeded their biggest circulation drop in recent years.

Yep, the LAT is extremely fair - as long as their's a (D) next to your name.

Please keep shilling for the left LAT - it's worked so darn well for you!

[Bigtime]

HaHa!!! Nobama surrounds himself with winners ( Rezko, Ayers, Levine, Wright, Edwards, Moss, Meeks, Pfleger, Farrakhan, NOI, TUCC, etc) or should we call them cohorts. And his cult are having conniption fits over McCain mopping the floor with The One.

I love it.
Hillary 08!!!!!!!

[John W.]

So a guy has an affair... with a grown woman. That's boring. Makes him seem almost human. That's why republicans will always trump democrats for entertainment value. Republicans go for the adolescent boys working as congressional pages, or gay sex in airport men's rooms. Haha, now that's entertainment.

[basbleu]

The question is why should we care how someone
in office, running for a seat in the senate or the
House of Representatives let alone the President of
the United States carries on in his private life?

Because what better barometer to judge their
qualification of leadership than by the integrity,
honesty and ability to live up to their promises
and pledges in their private lives.

I somehow stand by the old black and white
judgement...I've never been partial to "gray".

[Virginia Harris]

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[Aldo]

Seriously - why are Americans always so hung up on the private lives of public figures?

I don't know. The Times launched a big investigative journalism campaign to dig up the dirty details of John McCain's divorce and splash them on the front page. Meanwhile I have yet to read anything in the Times on ACORN, which is a subject area that is both extremely relevent to this campaign and also target-rich.

[Edward Foss]

Oh, is it permissable to talk about this now? Thank you, thank you LA Times, what would we do without you?

[John H]

Once again, the Times tries to protect one of its "anointed" Democrat Party politicians, only to be JOLTED by the truth rising to the surface.

What the fascination for the Times towards the army of "lefties" that it holds so sacred?

If this had been a Republican, the Times would have cleared half the front page for it's swarm of in-depth reporting.

As is so often the case with the Times, it's preference for politically correct nonsense trumps aggressive reporting.

Who's surprised? I'm not.

[NinaK]

Nobody better even say that this officals are like us, cause there not and shouldnt' be like us. We need nearly perfect people to run this country. Tha't why this country is the way it is because it's being run by average curupt, gay, cheating, greedy people. That's good that the media trys so hard to show us that these people we rely on to run our country are just stupid.

Posted by: frank
-----------------------
Waiting for McCain and the Republicans to jump on this one! IF they dare! Carol, John McCain's first wife, was involved in a very bad accident while he was POW, she did not tell him about it. When he returned home, she had put on weight, was about 4-5 inches shorter, and still in a wheelchair; John decided she was no longer the beaty he married. He immediately started having affairs, not with one woman, but several!! He FINALLY settled on Cindi, Carol filed for divorce, but John McCain and Cindi could NOT wait for it to be final, they shacked up together and got their marriage license BEFORE THE DIVORCE WAS FINAL and married ONE MONTH AFTER THE DIVORCE became finalized. John McCain is now running for president and noone seems to want to condemn him for his actions, nor do they want to condemn Cindi McCain. Yes, this took place when they were younger, still it is PROOF of the cheating, lieing, and philandering man McCain was and probably still is, remember something came up about him not too long ago, and he denied it?? Did anyone delve more into the issue? You know, once a philanderer, always a philanderer, a leopard does NOT change its spots. If Edward's political career is over as a result of his affair with ONE woman, then McCain is NOT fit to be our president either and his political career should be over as well. Why should one be condemned and not the other?? They both committed the same "crime", except MCain committed it with SEVERAL WOMEN, he shacked up with Cindi, he and Cindi got their marriage license BEFORE John and Carol were actually divorced!! By the way, could this be considered a form of bigamy??

I am truely disappointed John Edwards engaged in such activity, whether or not his wife was in remision does not justify his actions. What is also very troubling is John Edwards was talking strongly about having morals and being a moral country. The fact that he denied his actions make things worse for him. Someone asked THE BIG QUESTION: What will would have happened IF John had won the party's presumptive nomination. One never knows. But then again, he is not the first philanderer to lie big time! Remember our former ACTUAL President and his: "I did not have sex with that woman...."? Yet that man was allowed to finish his 2d term when in reality he should have been impeached for lieing to the Grand Jury!.

I can just hear and see the condemnations of John Edwards, yet Clinton got away with it and John McCain has gotten away with it so far. We shall see. But my take is, if John Edward's political career is over, John McCain's and Bill Clinton's should also be over. Let's treat them ALL THE SAME WAY. After all, one was the president at the time of his affair and in the oval office no less; one is the pesumptive Republican nominee for president, and one was a candidate for president. What all three did was wrong!

[SAM]

So now you'll report the story? And I bet you'll ignore the lie that the child isn't his unless he admits to that, too?

How pathetic.

[Barbara]

Men typically say "who cares" when it comes to knowledge of affairs, whereas women take pause.

If you cannot trust someone, be it a spouse or the president, you cannot have relationship of substance.

It's the basics of morality that are behind the slow desecration of our country. Lying. Stealing. Cheating.

Until truth and trust take precedence, we are doomed.

[Frank Dale]

What a pathetic excuse for a paper you have become. Happens in your backyard and you do not even report on it. You ought to go out of business - my guess is the end is closer than you believe. Simply a disgrace!

[DBCooper]

I'm not one to kick an organization when it's down.
Just kidding! The LA Slimes sucks.

[Aldo]

"By the way, critical commenters, I don't see you working to fight poverty."

You don't even know me. How do you know that I don't work to fight poverty?

I suppose that you pride yourself on "working" to fight poverty by agitating for the expansion of government programs. SEIU is spending $150 million this year to elect Barack Obama, so I know the public unions are not starving, but poverty is still with us.

[Ramsey El-Taieb]

Tim Jemal,

I agree with you entirely. Although, I am far more cynical. To expect the general public to uphold the integrity necessary for bringing forth the strongest of public servants requires a basic understanding of dignity. Many people including 9/10ths of our elected officials do not posses such an indelible quality. This clearly explains the candidates we have suffered in the last decade, including Ad-words, Scary, Douche, Obamanation and Mc'Aint. Shameless and SHAM full liars, repulsive and vile in their rhetorical posturing. I recoil in disgust from their sordid filth. Alas, this is part of the ebb and flow of such hypocrisy and idiocy, social recycling has to run its course.

[NinaK]

The woman involved seems to have been a "free-for-all sexual commodity in John Edwards' campaign team. She is one big "YUCK". Wait a minute, she wasn't for free, She made over $100,000 for FOUR ADs!! EXPENSIVE SERVICE!

[Robert Lewis]

Rielle Hunter of the John Edwards story: The $9,644 lawsuit and her ex-husband, an attorney, and the son of JonBenet Ramsey murder case District Attorne Alex Hunter

webofdeception.com

[john baguta]

John Edwards, Bill Clinton and many other politicians, religious and other public and private community leaders have proved beyond doubts that sex with one woman is not enough for most Americans.
For a change, can we accept the Islamic Sharia laws and allow men to marry up to four wives legally?

[Fleiter]

This paragon of virtue who is fighting to end poverty in America also ended the funding for a program that sent poor N.C. kids to college. I guess he's concerned that he's about to join the impoverished. His wife is about to take all the money that he earned running obstetricians out of business. I won't cry a tear.

[Shana McCarthy]

That's the trouble with men; they think with something other than their brain. Women are a lot smarter so when will the Democrats realize they made a hugh mistake in their nominee. Even tho Obama is not reported to have an affair, he's just like other male candidates: they think only of themselves, are egotistical, arrogant and self serving. This country will be far better off whenever we are smart enough to elect a female as president.

[NinaK]

John needs to do a paternity test. The little baby will turn into a young girl and then a teen ager, and then a young woman....eventually she will want and need to know who fathered her. Yes, a paternity test is in order either from John or his aide or better yet, from both. If this woman was so loose with her favors, maybe neither of these men is the daddy.

[john baguta]

Thanks GOD, Obama was about to announce him to be his running mate, now he left with Clinton alone.!!!!

[Storm4uar]

LOL....really do we care that another public figure had an affair. So, John Edwards will now know what Bill Clinton and Hillary went through. Really, Edwards is going to be ran through the ringer when we should also blame the female. It takes two to have an affair. Another point everyone keeps saying allowing gay marriage will be the down fall to marriage it looks like it is still the same old problem. MEN NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP IT IN THEIR PANTS. Don't worry though the stats show women are quickly catching up on the cheating stats. Personnally, it is a private matter and as for my political leaders I don't vote for them because they are married and faithful I vote for them because they can run a government. To bad we really don't have any politicians that can do that. Instead the people that can do that choose to make money and stay our of politics except to arrange laws in their corporations favor.