Nearly a decade before John Edwards found himself ensnared in a controversial affair with Rielle Hunter, he pilloried Bill Clinton's infidelities during the latter's impeachment proceedings.
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.
The following timeline hits the high points of the Edwards-Hunter affair.
* 2006: Edwards meets filmmaker Rielle Hunter in New York. His “One America Committee” pays her more than $100,000 to produce four videos about Edwards.
* Dec. 28, 2006: Edwards announces his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
* Jun. 2007: John Edwards receives a "Father of the Year" award in New York City.* July 2007: John Edwards publicly renews his wedding vows with his wife Elizabeth. People Magazine features photos of the event in one of their issues.
* Oct. 10, 2007: The National Enquirer reports that Edwards had an affair with Hunter. Edwards responds: “The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous.” Hunter also denies the allegations.
* Dec. 19, 2007: The National Enquirer reports that Hunter is pregnant and Edwards is the father of the child. An ex-Edwards aide, Andrew Young, 41, claims he is the father of Hunter’s child.
* Jan. 30, 2008: Edwards ends his campaign for the Democratic nomination.
* Feb. 27, 2008: Hunter gives birth to a daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter. No father’s name is given on the birth certificate, filed in California.
* July 22, 2008: The National Enquirer reports that it caught Edwards visiting Hunter and her daughter at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
* July 23, 2008: At a press conference in Houston, Edwards says “the tabloid trash is full of lies.”
* Aug. 6, 2008: National Enquirer publishes photos that it says are of Edwards with Rielle Hunter and with her baby.
* Aug. 7, 2008: Blogs speculate that Dallas trial lawyer Fred Baron was funding Rielle Hunter for John Edwards.
* Aug. 8, 2008: Edwards admits to having an affair with Hunter. He denies fathering her daughter or making any financial payments.
* Aug. 8, 2008: Fred Baron admits that he funded Hunter and Andrew Young (the former Edwards aide, married with children, who claimed to the father of Hunter's child).
Is the timeline complete? Hardly. Interviewed on Larry King Live (with Wolf Blitzer sitting in for King), Enquirer editor David Perel and reporter Alan Butterfield were adamant about the paternity of the child and that significant revelations had yet to appear.
Perel: ...We received what we thought was a credible tip, Wolf, and we started investigating it... we were able to prove that, indeed, John Edwards had a sexual affair with Rielle Hunter. We first did the story in October without naming her and then we came back with a much tougher story in December 2007, where we not only named her, but we photographed her pregnant.
...We know that Rielle believes that he is the father. And Mr. Edwards today, in his own statement, said he did not take a paternity test. He's now saying that he will take one. We've asked him for months if he would take one and he's ignored that request.
...our sources -- the same sources that led us to uncover this affair -- say that Rielle says she never had a sexual relationship with [Andrew Young]Blitzer: ...he argues that he had this affair back in 2006. The baby was born just a few weeks ago. He said the affair lasted in 2006, but there was no more affair in 2007. And, as a result, he says he couldn't be the father of this baby.
Butterfield: Right. But why is he -- the question we should all ask him, then, why was he visiting her at 3 in the morning at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 21, then if he's not the father? He is the father. I mean at least he believes he's the father... Rielle is telling everyone he's the father and he is -- you know, why isn't there a name on the birth certificate?
Blitzer: And this other Andrew Young, who says he's the father, you don't believe him.
Butterfield: No. Not at all. Andrew Young and his wife, Shari, moved out to the Santa Barbara area with Rielle soon after our December story. I guess they're all living, then, as one big happy family.
Blitzer: What happens, David, if he does take the paternity test and it doesn't match and it shows he is not the father?
Perel: We'll publish that. I've made the offer to him repeatedly: take a paternity test, whatever the results are, we'll publish it. He has refused to do that, as he's been calling this story lies and tabloid trash and lying to the American public. Unfortunately, I think the only reason he came forward and admitted the affair is because we did catch him at the hotel meeting on July 21 and we did publish a photograph this week in the National Enquirer showing him holding the baby.
We can also reveal that in addition to that meeting, he met at the same hotel a month before with Rielle Hunter and the baby, so his actions are what counts. His words have proven not to be credible.
...The thing that counts is the story has proven to be true and there is more to come.
Update: Fausta links to Elizabeth Edwards' public statement on her husband's affair. There's no shortage of sympathy for the situation in which she's been placed. But the media is not the primary source of blame for the destruction of her family's privacy.
Major hat tip: LA Times. Picture credits: Hunter filming Edwards: Chuck Olsen. Linked by: A Blog for All. Thanks!
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